


The X-Men: Classified

by breathingfiredragons



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, OC's - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-04-11 00:38:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 111,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4414172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breathingfiredragons/pseuds/breathingfiredragons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Professor decides to expand the school, bringing in several new mutants. As they arrive, so does more trouble, danger, and mischief. Meanwhile Rogue is charmed by the mysterious new guy, who showed up out of the blue, and Kitty crushes over two guys, one of which isn't an option. New mysteries in the mansion arise, and new characters join the group. They'll quickly learn that everything is not what it seems.<br/>I got the idea for the television style from ARogueGambit7's story 'Mutant High: Revolution'. (Really awesome by the way, go check it out)<br/>(Previously New Mutants, New Adventures, but I changed it. The old title was bugging me. Sorry for the inconvenience.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Ice Queen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ARogueGambit7](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ARogueGambit7/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Mutant High: Revolutionary](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3987391) by [ARogueGambit7](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ARogueGambit7/pseuds/ARogueGambit7). 



> I will have several OC's in this. If they are an OC, in the 'title sequence', there'll be a star * by there name.  
> Also, I got the idea for the television formatting (as I said before) from Mutant High: Revolution by ARogueGambit7. Really awesome story, go check it out.  
> And about the television thing: I did not write it like a script. It's written the same way another fanfiction would be. The only difference is that I have a cast, a title sequence, and it shows when there's commercial breaks. Also, it'll say what music is playing in the background when. The same as in the other story I keep mentioning, because that's where I got the idea. (Again, it's a really awesome story. GO. READ. IT.)

A/N: Hello! A few little side notes before we get started. Firstly, I got the idea of this whole television feel from ‘Mutant High: Revolutionary’ by ARogueGambit7. I’ll be posting this fic on both fanfiction.net and archiveofourown.org , where that fic was posted. I didn’t write it in script style, but I did it showing the commercial breaks and such, also music. Basically the same way they did it (it’s super awesome, by the way. You should go read it.) And also, some of the characters (although not all) are my own creation. If they are, then they’ll have a little star * by their name in the ‘title sequence’. Without further ado, here’s the story!  
~~~  
Season One, Episode One  
The Ice Queen

Princess ‘Rin’ Conair was not ashamed. She had the vague feeling that other members of her family were, but she certainly wasn’t. Personally, she thought that it was really, really cool! She could do anything with water that she wanted! Got stuck in the rain? Not a problem! She could move it out of the way! Pool water too cold? Nah, she could hit it up with a simple move of her hand! And making snow cones was that much easier! She also had ice like powers, and it was sorely tempting to build a snow fort outside and sing ‘Let it Go’. But she didn’t think her parents would appreciate it. They weren’t ashamed of her, just of what the ‘neighbors might think’. Whatever.  
Looking out her window, Rin looked out at the pool. Making sure that her parents weren’t watching, she slid the window open, removing the screen and rubbing her hands. Focusing, she pulled the water from the pool up to her window, shaping it like a slide and freezing it. The pool was still completely full, and Rin had no idea where the excess water was coming from. She smiled brightly, then slide down it into the water. Instead of getting wet, the water had a gelatin feel to it. She sank down into it, then climbed out. She was about to make a ladder to her room to go again when she heard an angry clearing of the throat from her father, who was leaning against the sliding door.  
“Princess. We’ve talked about this. You can’t just mess around with this where others might see!” he scolded.  
“I was just having some fun. I’ll clean it up, I promise,” Rin waved her hand, and all of her slide and the pool turned back to water and disappeared into the pool.  
“Come inside. We all need to talk,” her father instructed, heading inside with Rin following with a sigh.  
Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons  
Wolverine: Hugh Jackman  
Rogue: Anna Paquin  
Shadowcat: Ellen Page  
Professor X: Patrick Stewart  
Gambit: Taylor Kitsch  
Jubilee: Julia Ling  
Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee  
Jean Grey: Famke Janssen  
Cyclops: James Marsden  
Storm: Halle Berry  
Iceman: Shawn Ashmore  
Colossus: Enver Gjokaj  
*Ice Queen: Danielle Campbell (young)  
*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young)  
Guest Starring:  
*Jeffrey Dean Morgan  
*Paige Turco  
and  
Rebecca Romijn as Mystique  
~~~  
At the Mansion  
Rogue sat at the lunch table next to Kitty and Jubilee. The news was playing behind them, but they tried to keep the conversation going so they wouldn’t have to listen.  
Rogue had started to unconsciously watch where Gambit and Piotr were sitting and talking. It wasn’t like she had a thing for him, but Gambit was certainly nice to look at. Besides, she could look at the merchandise, just not check it out. Especially if it was someone as annoying as Gambit.  
Kitty and Jubilee gave each other knowing looks before each scooting close to Rogue on each side. “So, Rogue,” Kitty started, pulling Rogue away from her staring.  
“Kitty and I were wondering,” Jubilee continued, making Rogue weary. This sounded very scripted to her.  
“What’s the scoop with you and Bobby?” Kitty finished in a rush.  
“Guys! Ah’m not gonna tell ya if ya keep actin’ like ah’m a piece of gossip!” she exclaimed.  
Kitty and Jubilee both sighed dramatically.  
“You’re right, Rogue. We’re sorry,” Jubilee hung her head in shame.  
“So…” Kitty’s eyes flashed to Bobby. She found him slightly attractive, but she’d never go after him if he was still with Rogue. They were best friends! She’d never betray her like that. “Is there any chance you can, like, tell us as friends? Not, like, as highly intrigued gossipers?”  
Rogue sighed, stuffing some food in her mouth. “Well,” she said once she swallowed. “Ah don’ think we’re gonna last much longer. We’re too different, and ah don’t wanna confine him to the sorta relationship he’d have to have with me.”  
Kitty squeezed Rogue’s gloved hand. “I’m sure it’ll work out.”  
At Princess’s house  
“Your mother and I,” Dad started, Mom joining him from her office. “Think that it’s best that we look into sending you somewhere for...people with gifts. Like you.”  
“Really!?” Rin asked, excited. She’d get to see other mutants? Awesome! Her parents never let her see any others. Not that there were any others near her house. Orange Beach, Alabama was completely mutant free, aside from her.  
“Yes. There’s a few places. A Ms. Frost has a school to train mutants, but I managed to personally reach out to a Ms. Darkholme who’s coming today to meet you!” her mother said enthusiastically. Rin’s smile grew as she hugged her mother.  
“That’s absolutely positively AWESOME!” Rin exclaimed excitedly.  
“Honey, you forgot one,” her Dad frowned, looking at his wife.  
“Yes, well…” her mother paused as Rin pulled away. “I don’t like how far away it is. At least in Massachusetts we have family. She can stay with Dave and Marge, and all of their kids.”  
“There was another school, Xavier’s school for Gifted Youngsters that seemed adequate enough,” her father explained. “That one, however, is in New York, and your mother isn’t overly fond of you living in the Big Apple.”  
Rin considered that. She’d always wanted to move to New York, the big city, all of that. But she was only 14, she wasn’t sure if she was ready to move away, whether to Massachusetts or New York. “Well where is Ms. Darkholmes’ school? Any closer?”  
The doorbell rang.  
“Ask her yourself!” her mother brushed off her dress nervously and went to go let her in.  
“Here goes nothing,” her father prepped, clearly eager like her mother.  
Commercial Break  
In the Danger Room  
Logan, Jean, Scott, and Storm were all training vigorously in the Danger Room. Since the school expanded, they hadn’t gotten much of a chance to. Now they were about ten minutes in, glad to be working out some of the nervous energy and anger that they’d pent up since teaching.  
“On your left!” Logan shouted to Storm, who blasted it out of the way with lightning.  
They were finally getting into it-forgetting about the student problems, the outside world problems, all of it-when they got a telepathic message from the Professor. “Please come to my office. I am flying to Alabama for a new recruit, but I have the feeling I won’t be the only one there. I would appreciate some back up.”  
“Hank, turn off the simulator!” Wolverine ordered. Putting his claws away, the four teachers made their way to the Professor’s office.  
“I always love it when we get new students,” Jean said happily.  
“I agree,” Storm nodded. “When more people want to come, it gives me the feeling that we are making a difference.”  
“Helping the students gives you that feeling? Not the fighting giant robots or defeating evil?” Logan rolled his eyes.  
Storm just shrugged, then turned to the Professor. “Who is the new student?”  
“Her name is Princess Conair. Her powers are similar to Bobby’s but more expanded. Her parents reached out to me yesterday, asking for some information. They haven’t contacted me since, and I’m sensing danger in her town,” Professor explained. “Wolverine, Jean, Cyclopes, come with me. Storm, stay here and watch the students.”  
“Alright,” Storm agreed.  
“Her name is Princess?” Logan snorted. “Wonderful.”  
At Princess’s house  
Rin was wedged between her parents excitedly, Ms. Darkholme sitting across from them.  
“I’m Ms. Darkholme,” she extended her hand to Rin, who shook it happily.  
“I’m Princess, obviously. But you knew that,” Rin grinned. “But you can call me Rin.”  
“Alright, Rin,” Ms. Darkholme was a pretty blonde. Rin could tell that she was important. She also wondered what her ability was, but figured it would be rude to ask. “So, Mr. and Mrs. Conair, I’m here to answer any questions that you might have about my program.”  
“Yes, a few, actually,” Rin’s parents shared glances with her before her mother continued. “The first being with the location…”  
Ms. Darkholme nodded as if she expected this. “Certainly. My program isn’t a boarding school like some of the others. In fact, I can do my program one on one for a period of time until she gets some more control.”  
That seemed to perk her mother up greatly. “So Princess can continue to live here?”  
“Exactly. I occasionally have field trips, where all of my other students and I go on field trips to study and have more experience, but for the most part, she will be staying here,” Ms. Darkholme promised.  
Both of her parents seemed won over. “Great. I’ll call you tomorrow so we can talk prices,” her father never seemed to like talking money in front of Rin. She knew that they were on the rich side, but never how much.  
“Actually, I would like to talk to Princess on her own for a few minutes. I like to do personal interviews with my students, to talk about any fears they might have that they are embarrassed to admit in front of their parents,” Ms. Darkholme stood up.  
Her parents glanced at one another, but left the room none the less, but first giving Rin a look that said, we’ll be right here if you need anything.  
“So, Rin,” she smiled soothingly. “Can you explain to me, in your own words, what your gift is.”  
Rin was shocked that she had called her powers a gift instead of a mutation, like most other adults. “Okay. Well, uh,” Rin grinned. “I can control water and other any other liquid, really. But I can do more than that. I also can freeze it, boil it, harden it, and create more of it. And I can make this weird jelly thing, but I don’t have a catchy name for that yet,” she said all of this in one breath.  
“Well, I have a question for you,” Ms. Darkholme leaned closer to her. “Your mutation also comes with a visible mutation,” Rin unconsciously touched the scars that ran from under her eyes to her chin. They had a bluish tint, and in Rin’s opinion they actually looked kind of cool.  
“Well, duh. It doesn’t effect anything,” Rin smiles.  
“No, it certainly shouldn’t. But it makes it harder to blend in, doesn’t it?” Ms. Darkholme pointed out.  
“Some people stare or say something. But it doesn’t matter, me being upset won’t change anything, so I’m not!” Rin said brightly.  
“Well one of the other things me and my pupils do, one that your parents might not understand because their not like us, is we give justice to those who deserve it. We prove that mutants are people, too, and we deserve the same rights as everyone else,” Ms. Darkholme had a sort of glint in her eyes when she spoke about that aspect of her job.  
“Are you a mutant, then?” Rin asked, excited. She’d never seen another one before! What’s her power? Maybe she could run super fast, or fly! Maybe she could read minds!  
Ms. Darkholme was about to answer when there was rapid knocking at the door. Running over to check who it was, Rin saw a group of people standing there, one in a wheel chair.  
“Mom!” she called. “People are at the door! They’re-”  
Rin stopped, noticing all of the blood drain from Ms. Darkholme’s face, then anger spread across her face. She made eye contact with one of them, the man in the wheelchair, through the window, and her skin shimmered for a moment and turned blue. Her eyes took on a cat like appearance, and her hair was a deep red. Suddenly something slashed through the door like a knife as they ran into the house.  
A short man with claws on his hand lunged at Ms. Darkholme, despite the taller man with a visor telling him to stop. Rin was freaked. He was attacking them! With a quick wave of her hand, ice appeared between them, stopping him from reaching them.  
“What’s going on?” Rin asked, steadily backing up. The short man cut up the ice like it was made of butter.  
Her instincts took over and she melted the water, then surrounded the short guy with it, completely encasing him, then hardening it into glass, unabling him to move at all.  
Ms. Darkholme looked angrily at them.  
“Raven,” the guy in the wheelchair looked at her as if she were an old friend. “What are you doing?”  
“Same as you. I’m offering her help,” Ms. Darkholme-Raven- looked at you sadly. “Rin, go and join your parents. We can talk more tomorrow. I’m sorry that this happened.”  
Rin started towards the kitchen, but stopped when the others spoke. “Mystique, what are you doing?” the Professor repeated. “You can’t use people like this to get to your own personal goals. Especially not children.”  
Personal goals? Rin thought. What was really going on?  
Commercial Break  
Storm’s version of gym was always interesting. Today they had to combine the classes because of the lack of teachers. Because of the large numbers they were doing relay races in groups. First was boys, no powers, then girls no powers. Then again with powers, and again with the top five from boys and girls no powers. Same on with powers. Her methods were interesting, and this gave everyone plenty of time to talk.  
Rogue hung out with Kitty on the sidelines, waiting for the boys powers race to be over. “So, like, Jubilee and I are trying to get a group together to go see the new Superman movie, and we were wondering if you, like, wanted to come. We’d go on friday.”  
Kitty sounded so hopeful that it was hard to say no, even if Rogue had no interest in those movies. “Sure. So who all’s goin’?” Rogue asked.  
“So far it’s me, Jubilee, Kurt, Bobby, and Piotr. We need to ask Jean, for ‘parental supervision’, though. And…” Kitty smiled slyly at Rogue.  
“What?” this couldn’t be good.  
“We were thinking about inviting Gambit,” Kitty smirked, looking at the attractive Cajun as he finished in third place. He raised his hands over his head, his muscles flexing.  
Rogue turned bright red. “And why would that matta’ to me? Ah’m with Bobby.”  
“You said yourself that you, like, didn’t think that you would stay together for much longer. I just think that you should keep your options open,” Kitty shrugged, looking at the guys finishing the race.  
“Oh yeah?” Rogue snorted. “And what about you?”  
Kitty nodded. “Oh, I certainly am.”  
“Right. What about...” Rogue saw a dark haired boy finish the race towards the end, a scowl on his face. “Him?”  
“Matt? Phantom? You’re kidding!” Kitty laughed. He seemed to have heard them, because he sent a scowl their way.  
“What’s wrong with him? He seems nice enough,” Rogue shrugged.  
“He’s grumpy. He’s always, like frowning, and he never hangs out with anyone!” Kitty huffed.  
Rogue frowned. “What’s wrong with that?”  
“Uh-” Kitty laughed nervously. “Nothing.”  
“Okay. What about…” she scanned the boys. “Piotr? He’s cute, ah guess.”  
Kitty shrugged uncomfortably. “He-uh-I guess, yeah he’s cute. And nice,” her eyes flicked over to Bobby before nodding again. “Yeah.”  
In Princess’s house  
Standing just against the door, Rin watched the short guy for a second with curiosity. He wasn’t passing out from lack of air, when he should’ve been.  
“This isn’t your fight, Charles. I’m not going to hurt any of them,” Raven promised, glaring at him.  
“I know you. You’re planning something. And I won’t let you get innocents involved,” he said, rolling closer.  
“You can’t stop me,” Raven hissed, then turned to Rin. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise. I just need help.”  
For the first time in a long time, Rin’s smile faltered, looking from the other people and Raven. Finally she spoke to the others. “Who-who are you guys?”  
“I’m Professor X,” the bald guy said in a kind voice. “This is Jean and Scott. The man you’ve frozen, that’s Logan.”  
Rin looked at Logan nervously, then to Raven again. All she managed to say was, “he’s not frozen. It’s like...it’s like glass.”  
The Professor chuckled, then Rin’s parents finally came rushing into the room. What had taken them so long? Had the shattering door and shouting not alerted them that there was danger?  
“What is going on?” Her mother asked, looking at all of the newcomers.  
“Mr. and Mrs. Conair. My name is Charles Xavier. I promise you-” the Professor started in his calming voice. Unfortunately, he was interrupted when Logan suddenly managed to break free from his glass cage, and lunged at Raven. Their fight knocked over the table, tossing Rin against the room, where she at the last minute created a soft landing for herself out of the strange gelatinous substance.  
“Logan! Stop it!” the Professor shouted, touching his hand to his temple. Both of the adults slowed for a moment, until Raven broke free from the Professor and jumped out of the window.  
Rin looked from the window to the other people, and then to her parents.  
“I suppose that now would be a good time to explain everything,” Scott chucked nervously.  
Commercial Break  
“So you want us...to send our only daughter...to your school for-for people like her?” her mother summarized.  
The Professor nodded. “I think that it would be the best for her, to be around others and help her control her powers more,” Rin was tempted to interject and say that she had perfect control over her powers, but decided against it.  
“Not to mention,” Jean added, “Mystique-Ms. Darkholme-will probably be back soon to try and get to Rin again. It’s much safer for her to come with us.”  
Rin’s mother still seemed unsure, but her father spoke up. “Alright. She can go with you. I’ll call you tomorrow to discuss pricing and visitation,” one thing that Rin noticed about her parents was that they were-at least her father-straight to the point.  
“Yay!” Rin’s bright smile reappeared on her face. “I can’t wait to meet everyone! I’m gonna go pack!” she rushed upstairs to her room.  
“And I thought Jubilee was cheerful,” Scott commented.  
Carry On by Fun plays until end credits  
At the Mansion  
Rin was amazed at the size of the Institute. It was bigger than she’d imagined, not to mention more populated. There were kids of every size, shape, color, and mutant ability. It made her smile even bigger.  
Once she set her stuff up in her room, she came down for dinner.  
The Professor smiled at her warmly when she came down. “Hello, Princess. Did you settle in alright, I hope?”  
Rin nodded enthusiastically. “I did, thank you. It’s awesome here! And, by the way, you can call me Rin,” she said, looking around the room as she spoke.  
“As you wish. And thank you. I have to agree, it is beautiful here,” the Professor, too, gazed lovingly at the building before continuing. “Feel free to join the other students. You don’t need to be ashamed here, everyone fits in.”  
Rin was confused for a minute. “Ashamed of what?” when she realized he meant her mutation, she giggled a little. “I’m not ashamed. Thank you,” she said as she went to join the students.  
Rogue was sitting at a table with Kitty, Jubilee, Kurt, Bobby, Piotr, and Gambit. She wasn’t sure who had invited him, he’d just sit down across from her, a sly grin on his face as he cut up his food. She wasn’t sure who his flirting annoyed more, her or Bobby.  
“So, chère, you like the food?” Gambit asked, his accent thick.  
Rogue looked at him, suspicious. “Yes. In fact ah do. Storm did a good job with this meal. Ah’ll have to thank her later.”  
“I, like, love it when Storm cooks! She’s amazing,” Kitty gushed.  
“Me too! She’s certainly better than when it’s Logan’s turn,” Jubilee shudders.  
“See anything else you like?” Gambit asked Rogue, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Rogue groaned and was about to retort when a girl with tan skin, brown hair, and bluish scars running down her face walked up to them.  
“Hello!” she said happily as if they’d known each other for ages. “I’m Rin, and it’s my first night. This is kinda the only open spot, and I was wondering if it would be alright for me to sit here?” she smiled brightly.  
Kitty smiled in return, pointing to the open seat besides Jubilee. “Sure thing! You can sit here. It’s nice to meet you, I’m Kitty.”  
If possible, her smile widened. “Nice to meet you too! This place is really awesome, I’m glad my parents let me come here!” her happiness was a tad bit overwhelming, but it distracted them enough to make everyone forget about Gambit’s comment.  
Rin talked animatedly with Kitty and Jubilee for the rest of dinner. The rest of the students were spread out, sitting in groups of two or three, or more. The only person who was sitting alone was Matt, the dark haired boy who Rogue and Kitty had spoken about earlier. He sat on the edge of the room in a corner, thinking to himself. Once he’d finished, he was about to go back up to his room when he thought he saw movement. He turned, peering into the darkness of the coat closet nearby.  
“Hello?” he asked under his breath. “Who’s there?”  
No reply. The shadow he’d thought he’d seen disappeared. Or maybe it was never there.  
End Credits  
Promo for next episode:  
While going to the movies in town, Rin discovers just how harsh the real world can be. Rogue and Bobby continue to drift apart.


	2. The Real World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Promo for this episode-  
> While going to the movies in town, Rin discovers just how harsh the real world can be. Rogue and Bobby continue to drift apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I’m going to say this at the beginning of each chapter-this story’s set up was inspired by ARogueGambit7 ’s Mutant High: Revolutionary. (Really really awesome. Go read it.) Thank you to those who read my story! Even more thanks to those who decided my writing wasn’t awful. I’ll be introducing a few new characters as it goes on. And I’ll update it at least every Friday, if not more often. Also, later in this episode they talk about suicide and there’s a lot of bullying, so read carefully if you’re sensitive to that stuff or it might be a trigger.

Season One, Episode Two  
The Real World  
At the Mansion  
“Hey, Bobby!” Rin shouted, chasing him down the hall after their first class. He turned, surprised that she was talking to him this openly. They’d hardly spoken the night before at dinner, he hardly knew anything about her. But here she was, chasing him down the hall like they were best of friends.  
“Oh, hey,” he turned around to face her. Rin smiled brightly when he did so, looking eager to talk. “What’s up? It’s Rin, right?”  
Rin nodded happily. “Yeah! Anyway, Kitty told me that I should go and talk to you, since apparently are gifts are super similar.”  
Bobby looked at her curiously. “They are?”  
“According to Kitty! I can melt, freeze, control, and harden water. But my favorite thing to do is freeze it. Especially when Frozen is on,” Rin waved her free hand while she explained all of this.   
Bobby was a little shocked. This new comer had taken his status as the Ice Man! If it was anyone else he’d be furious, but Rin was so...happy, and excited about everything, it was impossible to. Her smiling was contagious. Like the flu.   
“That’s...cool! No pun intended,” Bobby said, causing Rin to laugh. “I can just freeze things, but I can also create ice out of nothing. They call me Ice Man.”  
If possible, Rin’s smile grew for a second. “I am so so so excited for choosing my nick-name! Kitty was telling me some of them, and it’s super exciting!” her smile faltered for a minute as she looked at Bobby. “Oh, wait. I was going to do The Ice Queen or something like that because, well, I love Frozen and it’s sorta a play off my full name, Princess-”  
Bobby snorted. “Your name is Princess?”  
Rin nodded. “Yeah. But if you don’t want me to because it’s too close to yours, or you think that I’m copying you, which I swear I’m not-”  
“Nah, it’s alright,” Bobby said, and Rin smiled brightly again.   
“Really?! In all, honest to God, truthfulness?” she asked.  
“Sure! Now, I’ve got to get to class. Are you coming to the movies with us tonight?” he asked hesitantly. He didn’t want it to seem like he was asking her out, not just because she was way too happy for him to keep up with 24/7, but because he was it Rogue. But Bobby figured that Jubilee would’ve already asked her. They were two peas in a pod of joy, sparkles, and rainbows.   
“Yeah!” Rin nodded excitedly. “I am super super super excited! Jubilee and Kitty invited me.”  
“Alright! See you then, I guess,” Bobby waved as he headed to his next class.   
“See you then,” Rin smiled. Bobby caught a glimpse of her schedule, which said that she had gym with Wolverine next. He wondered how long she would be able to keep that smile on, then.   
Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons  
Wolverine: Hugh Jackman  
Rogue: Anna Paquin  
Shadowcat: Ellen Page  
Professor X: Patrick Stewart  
Gambit: Taylor Kitsch  
Jubilee: Julia Ling  
Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee  
Jean Grey: Famke Janssen  
Cyclops: James Marsden  
Storm: Halle Berry  
Iceman: Shawn Ashmore  
Colossus: Enver Gjokaj  
*Ice Queen: Danielle Campbell (young)  
*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young)  
Guest Starring:  
*Bella Thorne  
*Skyler Samuels  
*Monique Coleman   
*Dylan Sprouse  
Liam Hemsworth   
~~~  
Rogue sat on the bench in the gym class, waiting to be put in for basketball. It was one of her favorite sports, but she rarely ever got to play these days. Once she’d heard that Wolverine was going to do a hardcore basketball tournament, she’d immediately covered up as much of her skin as possible and ran to the gym, showing up early to his class. That had shocked him enough to cause him to at least consider putting her in.  
His only worry was the same as her-she might touch someone. He usually didn’t let that stop her from training, but his version of the sport involved a lot of contact. Mainly throwing others to the ground, but still. Rogue watched regretfully as the rest of her classmates played. Her team was pretty good, they had Bobby and Piotr, both who were pretty athletic guys. The other team played with everything they had to try to beat them. It was strictly no powers, and anyone who dared disobey Logan would feel his wrath. Gambit was the first one to get out, after charging the basketball so her team would drop it. Not that Rogue minded, he was the best player on the opposing team.   
What Rogue did mind was him sitting next to her after he finished his fifty push ups. As if the sweat and the smell wasn’t bad enough, he immediately started flirting.   
“So, chère, why aren’t you playin’?” he slid closer to her, causing Rogue to instinctively slide away.   
“Logan thinks that it’s too dangerous. ’cus ah might accidentally touch someone,” Rogue shrugged nonchalantly.   
“Jus’ because of what might happen, he won’ let you play at all?” Gambit asked, surprised. “Dat’s not nice of him.”  
“Ah agree with him,” Rogue said suddenly, surprising Gambit.   
“You do?”  
“Yeah. He’s right. Ah might hurt someone. It was stupid for me ta even come down here today,” Rogue sighed, moving to get up and go. Bobby, however, was distracted by Rogue and Gambit talking, which caused him to accidently freeze the floor, causing several people to slip and for Logan to glare at him angrily. If looks could kill…  
“Bobby, go give me fifty push ups, then come talk to me. Someone wants an extra danger room session with Gumbo,” he barked the order before turning to Rogue. “Rogue, you’re in. Just be-”  
“Careful,” Rogue finished. “Ah always am.”  
Gambit clapped obnoxiously, causing Rogue to blush and Bobby’s face to redden immensely, the intensity of his work out increasing.   
Commercial Break  
Rin was trying to get to know, or at least say hello to every single student that was in the school. She’d spoken to most of them, with the exception of a few who saw her coming and avoided her, for whichever reason. Whatever. Rin could introduce herself later.   
Jubilee had become her overnight best friend. The Professor had made them roommates, so they talked late into the night about pretty much everything. Jubilee had asked why Rin didn’t have an accent like Rogue had if she was from the south, to which Rin replied that she was actually from North Carolina, but when she discovered her powers her parents moved them to Alabama. In turn, Rin asked about Jubilee’s name, and if it meant something. Jubilee said that it was a combination of her first and last name, ‘Jubilation Lee’.   
It was Jubilee who had suggested that Rin try to get to know everyone better.   
She was leaving her last class when she saw someone she didn’t know yet leave the classroom. He had been in her gym class, too. But she was too busy trying to figure out how to play basketball to talk to him then. Rin had been warned about Logan’s classes, but she loved them! Inside that hard shell he was just a big softie.   
Now, however, she was free. So she followed him down the hall, calling his name. “Hey! Hey, Matt, isn’t it? Wait up!”  
She could hear his groan as he turned around to face her. “Yes? Is there something I can help you with?”  
He wore dark clothes, and his expression made it clear that he was not a people person. But that didn’t discourage Rin in the slightest.   
“Hi! I’m Rin. It’s my second day and I’m trying to get to know everyone. Nice to meet you!” Rin extended her hand for a handshake, but he just stared at her until she dropped it with a nervous laugh.   
“As fascinating as that is, I have other things to do,” he turned to walk away, but Rin leaped in front of him.  
“I know you probably do, and I’m sorry for wasting your time, I just really really really want to get to know everyone. And you don’t seem to like people very much-”  
“What gave it away?” he interrupted dryly.  
“And I just want to know why so maybe maybe maybe I can fix that? If it was a bad experience I can promise not everyone’s evil! We’re all going to the movies tonight, if you want to come you can and it’ll be fun! And since it’s a movie you won’t have to talk much!” Rin continued.   
Matt looked her up and down, trying very hard not to get angry with her. She looked about a year or so younger than him. She was just a harmless little girl who was getting into things that weren’t her business. “Look, you are way too perky. Especially for me. I suggest for both our benefits that you walk away and never speak to me again.”  
Rin’s smile faltered, and for a moment Matt almost felt bad. But then she reinstated it and any guilt washed away. “I’m sorry that you feel that way! I try not to be annoying, but there’s so many people out there who think so many different things, and sometimes I just end up being annoying despite my best intentions.”  
Matt just scoffed at her for a moment before walking around her to his room. Rin looked crestfallen at such a failed attempt at friendship-which almost never happened to her-and almost missed Jubilee walking by with Kitty and Rogue. Smiling once more, Rin ran over to join them.   
“Jubilee!” she squealed. “How was your last hour?”   
“Good!” she replied, eager to chat with her new friend.   
Kitty and Rogue, meanwhile, were talking about the gym class.   
“Ah mean, ah can understand where Logan’s comin’ from, ah agree with him. Ah just wish…” Rogue trailed off wistfully.  
“I know,” Kitty patted Rogue’s arm. “I, like, thought that you were doing great out there. You were, like, really good at basketball! I never even realize you liked it!”  
Rogue nodded. “Ah love it. Ah used to play it a lot with some of my neighbors.”  
“Speaking of boys…” Kitty looked around the room for a second.  
“Were we?” Rogue asked as Kitty continued.   
“Did you, like, see Bobby today leaving the Danger Room?” Kitty gushed once she realized he wasn’t in the room.   
“No. Is he alright?” Rogue asked with a slightly worried tone.  
“He’s furious. Apparently something, like, happened in there with Gambit, and they got into an argument. Or he started shouting at Gambit. Whatever it was, he, like, looked like he could’ve killed Gambit if Logan hadn’t stepped in,” Kitty explained.   
“Oh my God. Did anyone get hurt?” Rogue asked, although she wasn’t sure if she was just concerned about Bobby or Gambit. After all, it was her fault that he’d gotten in the fight in the first place. Then again, if he’d just backed off when she told him to the first night that he’d gotten here, none of that would’ve happened.  
“I heard that Bobby punched Gambit in the face! But he, like, didn’t even fight back! Totally weird,” Kitty folded her arms. “Have you even seen the Cajun? He has a bruise on his cheek from it!”  
Rogue shook her head. “No, ah haven’t heard from ’im since gym.”  
Central Park, New York  
“You better make this quick,” Gambit grumbled, wearing sunglasses to hide his eyes. “I have places to be.”  
“Remy, you need ta be careful,” the man leaned on a tree, facing him. “It was too easy for me ta find ya.”  
“Trust me, I know what I’m doin’,” Gambit sighed. “How’d ya find me?”  
“A security camera by a restaurant caught ya on tape with some white striped fille. Ya were in a cajun restaurant. Dat’s just reckless,” the man leaned off of the tree to stand closer to Gambit, who lowered his voice.   
“Damnit,” Gambit cursed under his breath. The kids from the mansion where having a mall day, and at lunch time, since Bobby was out of town, he had invited Rogue, who had hesitantly agreed to it. It had actually ended with her storming out in anger, but it was one of Gambit’s better memories since joining the X-Men. “Did ya fix it? Get ridda da evendance?”   
Then man nodded. “Of course I did, petit frère,” (little brother) “I wouldn’ leave ya out in the dust. Just warnin’ ya to be careful. Maybe stay out of the public for a little.”  
Gambit smiled greatfully. “Merci, Henri,” (thank you) “Always appreciate da help.”  
Henri laughed. “Ya never accept my help, so how am I supposed to? You're too stubborn for your own good.”   
Gambit had to nod in agreement at that comment, his mind wandering to the trip he had planned to take with the others later, and how he was going to tell Rogue that he wasn’t going.   
Commercial Break  
All of the students were waiting by the door to go on the trip to the movies. Rin was chatting animatedly to Jubilee while Rogue, Bobby, and Kitty all talked in a group. Off in a dark corner, sulking as usual, was Matt. Gambit watched from afar, and not wanting to interrupt the peaceful atmosphere, and disappeared to his room before anyone could see him.   
“C’mon guys!” Jean motioned for all of them to get in line and into the van that the Professor had gotten for reasons like this.   
“Where’s Gambit?” Rogue asked, glancing behind herself as they all loaded on the bus.   
“Who cares?” Bobby remarked, a little bit on the defensive side. “Probably decided that he was too good for the rest of us.”  
Rogue said nothing, just shrugged and sat in the back of the van. Usually she tried to put a seat between her and whoever she sat next to, but today the van was full with not just her group of friends, but all of the X kids who’d heard of the trip and decided to tag along, so Rogue sat nervously next to Bobby, leaning into the window as much as possible.   
Rin sat besides Jubilee in the front row. “I’ve seen the trailer for this movie, but I didn’t think I’d ever actually go to see it.”  
“Why not?” Jubilee asked curiously.   
“My parents don’t like superhero movies. I think that they just didn’t want me to go around saving the world, like Aqua Girl or something,” Rin smiled as if it didn’t matter in the least.   
“That would be cool!” Jubilee remarked. Then, as if noticing something for the first time, she said, “Did the Professor offer you a hologram thingy?” she spoke rather timidly, as if afraid to offend her new friend.   
“He mentioned it, but I don’t want one,” in response to Jubilee’s surprised and confused look, she added: “I don’t feel ashamed of my mutation. I get a few weird looks, but I don’t care. Feeling upset about it wouldn’t change it, and I don’t want to have to hide behind a mask.”   
“I guess I can understand that. I think it’s cool that you’re not ashamed of who you are. Kurt has to wear one, otherwise he scares people,” Jubilee explains.  
“It’s true,” Kurt jumps in.  
“Eavesdropper,” Jubilee muttered.  
Kurt acts like he didn't hear her. “I like it. I get to choose what I look like!” he bit the inside of his cheek a little bit. “Of course, I can’t mess with it too much.”  
Jubilee giggled. “We all know how well that works out.”  
Kurt blushed, looking down. “Yeah, well…”   
Suddenly, Jean drove over a pothole, causing all of the students to jump. Rogue flew into Bobby, who narrowly avoided touching her skin. Bobby flinched, and instinctively scooted closer to Kitty, who was seated besides him. Rogue looked horrified at the thought of accidentally hurting him.   
“Oh my God, Bobby, ah’m sorry-” Rogue slid even closer to the window.   
“It’s-it’s fine Rogue,” Bobby assured her, but he didn’t sound too sure himself.   
Rogue didn’t say anything, just gazed out the window sadly.   
At the movies  
Everyone left the theater in fairly good mood, discussing the movie. Rogue and Bobby were holding hands, but she could feel the tension in it.   
“Did you like the movie?” Rogue asked Bobby, who was staring at something, or someone ahead of them.   
“What?” Bobby looked back at her. “Oh, yeah. I loved it. All of those action sequences,” he mimicked punching.   
Rogue nodded, debating whether or not to ask him about the Danger Room session.   
Meanwhile, Rin was leaving the restroom when she ran into three girls. Literally.   
“Oh my!” she exclaimed, backing up. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to, obviously. Just-sorry about that!” Rin smiled apologetically.   
“It’s alright,” the redhead one assured, then looked up from her phone. “What’s that one your face?” she asked, not at all gentle about it.   
The blonde one peered closer. “Jess, I think those are scars!” she exclaimed loudly.   
The African American one looked a little bit uncomfortable. “Uh, guys, our movie-”  
Jess, the redhead one, raised a hand to silence her. “What happened? Those look hideous.”  
Rin’s stomach fluttered at the insult, but still smiled. “I was born with it. I kinda like it.”  
The blonde snorted in disgust. “Ew. Why? It looks like a cat attacked you.”  
“Jess, Steph, maybe we should-” the other girl started again.  
“Hush, Bex. Well?” Steph asked again.  
Rin seemed surprised at the question. “Because it’s a part of me? Like your red hair,” she suggested.  
That seemed to offend Jess more than anything. “Seriously? My hair is gorgeous. People purposely look like I do because they like it. Don’t you dare compare that horrid deformity to my hair!”  
Rin’s smile faltered, then faded completely. Unable to help it, her powers activated and the water fountain turned on, if only for a moment before she got them under control again. “I-I’m sorry that you feel that way,” Rin tried to smile again, and failed. But she didn’t retaliate. Violence didn’t end violence, it extended it. The same went for hostility.   
“Ohmigod!” Steph said in one hushed breath. “You’re one of those mutant freaks, aren’t you?”  
If they weren’t repulsed before, they were now. The redhead even took a not subtle at all step back. “Freak! God, you’re ugly and dirty. Why are you here where normal people are?”  
Rin could feel tears threatening to escape. They’re just afraid of what they don’t understand. They’re harmless, and what they say won’t change anything. And I don’t want to change anything! I’m perfect just the way I am. Rin thought to herself, more to convince herself than anything else. “I’m no different than anyone else. Mutants are people too-”  
Steph looked horrified that Rin had said that. “God, you’re stupid too? Mutants will be the end of us. You guys are all monsters, I don’t even know why you’re allowed in public.”  
Bex seemed like she wanted to interfere, but she looked too afraid. “If I were you, born like that,” Jess waved her hand to indicate Rin’s face. “I think I would just kill myself.”  
“You’re better with slit wrists,” Steph seethed. She looked like she was going to say more, but she was interrupted.   
Paradise by Coldplay plays through the next few scenes  
“Shut up!” a male voice shouted, shoving her back. It was Matt. “Rin’s worth a thousand of you. She tries to make the world a better place. All that you do is bring people down to make yourself feel better.”   
Steph looked appalled, both at being called out that way, but because it was a cute boy doing it. “I don’t understand what you-”  
“No, you don’t. You just told someone to kill themselves because their different. And it’s not even a bad different! Hell, she could save lives one day! Do amazing things! So what she looks a little different? Everyone looks different,” Matt pointed out angrily.   
“Who are you to say that she isn’t a monster? You’re probably one too, a disgusting freak just defending your own kind!” Jess finally spoke up, fighting back.   
“You know nothing about mutants. All you know is what you’ve assumed. Maybe I should feel bad for you, for not knowing better. But I don’t. I hope that you burn in Hell for everything that you said,” Matt spit out the last words.   
Jess and Steph stared at him with a mixture of regret and anger. Finally, Jess muttered, “We won’t be the ones in Hell,” before she and Steph stormed away.  
Bex stayed there awkwardly for a moment. “I’m sorry about what they said. I-”  
“You’re just as bad. You just let it all happen,” Matt accused, and Bex quickly left to follow her friends. Finally, he turned to Rin, who had started to cry. He was pretty sure that this was the first time he hadn’t seen her smiling, let alone crying. “Hey, Princess, you alright?”   
“It’s Rin,” was all she said at first. Then she took a shaky breath, and hugged Matt tightly. “You do have a heart!”  
He was awkward at first before he decided to hug her back. Even that was a little bit awkward, but it was the thought that counted. “Anytime, Princess,” he used her full name again rather than her preferred nickname, but this time in a more endearing way. “But you have to learn to fight back yourself. The world is a harsh place.”  
Rin pulled away, shaking her head, “I disagree with you.”  
That surprised Matt. Those girls had just told her she was better off dead, yet she still thought the world was a good place? “Really? After all of that?”  
Rin nodded. “Yeah. Sure the world has bad people, but it also has good people. People who see others in need of help and help them. People like you, and the Professor. I just think I had the bad luck of running into the bad ones today.”  
Matt was surprised to be ranked up that high on her mental list of good people, next to the Professor of all people. “You certainly are perky,” was all he could manage to say.   
“See! That’s a good thing,” her smile finally returned. “Now you can see that that’s not such a bad thing.”  
“Maybe not,” he said. “Maybe not.”  
Commercial Break 

Neither Rin nor Matt talked about what had happened in the movies. In fact, as soon as the whole scene was over, Matt had disappeared to who knows where, and sat in the back of the bus, staring at the window with his usual glowering expression. Rin sat down next to Jubilee again and spoke as if nothing had even happened.   
After the pothole incident on the way there, Bobby was a little hesitant to sit besides Rogue again. He did, but you could cut the tension with a knife between them. Hardly speaking to each other the entire ride home, it was Kitty who filled most of the conversation, talking about everything from how attractive the actors were to how people admired the superpowers in the movie but not in real life.   
“It’s, like, totally barbaric!” Kitty exclaimed.   
Rogue just nodded. “Yeah. It’s messed up.”  
And that was it for the while.   
At the Mansion  
Bobby and Rogue lingered outside for a moment or two after the rest went inside. Kitty paused, wondering if she should stay, but Rogue sent her ahead. “It’s alright, Kitty. We’ll be in soon.”  
Eyes Open by Taylor Swift plays until credits  
For a moment they stood there awkwardly, neither sure what to say. They hadn’t been in a fight, but things had changed compared to how they were months ago when they’d first gotten together. Finally Rogue spoke up.   
“It’s been a while,” she said, a nervousness to her voice.  
“Yeah. I feel like we never get to spend time together, and when we do, it’s not...real,” Bobby said, struggling slightly to say what he meant.   
Rogue nodded, understanding perfectly. “Ah feel like we’re growing apart. Lately, with everything that’s going on, we’ve fallen apart.”  
“Rogue, I still care for you. I want to keep going. I don’t want to give up on us,” Bobby said hopefully, causing Rogue to smile.   
“Me too, it’s just…” she trailed off for a moment before continuing. “Ah need to know. What happened between you and Gambit in the training room?”   
Bobby scowled angrily. “He was bragging about how great he was. At fighting, at cards...at flirting.”  
Rogue bit her lip. “And ya attacked him?” she confirmed.  
Bobby looked at her with a strange expression. “I lost my temper. I know that I shouldn’t of, but I couldn’t help it.”  
“Bobby! Ya know the rules. Besides, it’s jus’ his personality. And if you hadn’t iced the ground at basketball-” Rogue chastised.  
“You’re taking his side on this?” Bobby exclaimed angrily. “God, Rogue, he can’t be trusted! He’s a jerk!”  
“Seriously? You’re acting like a ten year old!” Rogue crossed her arms angrily.   
“I’m sorry that I don’t like that some random guy who just shows up is flirting with my girlfriend!” Bobby threw his hands in the air.   
“That’s just his personality,” Rogue hissed. “It’s not like ah’m interested in him! People check you out all the time, but ah don’t say anything!”  
“That’s not the same! Random people check you out on the streets all the time! And it’s completely different,” Bobby spoke with anger in his voice.   
“So what? Just because ah see him every day, that might make a difference? Ya check out Kitty all the time!” Rogue accused.   
“I-you-I don’t!” Bobby swore, raising his hands.   
“Bobby, ah’m not stupid! Ah see the way ya look at her! If ya want to be with her, don’t drag me along! Ah know that you don’t like not being able to touch me!” Rogue stormed off into the mansion, leaving Bobby by the car.   
When she stormed in, the first person she ran into was none other than Gambit. “What’s wrong, chère? You seem angry.”  
Rogue stopped and turned to face him. “None of your business. By the way, thanks for completely ditching us today. Ah mean, if ya didn’t want to come, ya could’ve just said somethin’. Ah’m tryin’ ta be nice ta ya, but all ya do is be an arrogant jerk and ignore me!”  
Gambit seemed shocked at her outburst. “I’m sorry dat I didn’t come.”  
Rogue shook her head. She knew that she was being too harsh, and she’d regret it later, but she was too angry with Bobby, with her curse, with everything. “Gambit, ah don’ care that ya didn’t come. Ah’m angry that ya didn’t tell me.”   
“Gambit’s sorry dat you’re disappointed with ’im-”  
“Ah don’t know why ah try with you. Bobby’s right. Ya’ can’t be trusted,” Rogue stalked past him, not wanting him to see how upset she was, not just about the whole ordeal with Bobby, but the fact that she knew it was her curse keeping anyone from actually caring about her.   
She was almost to her room, ready to sulk and complain about how unfair all of this was when she received the telepathic message from the Professor. 'All students, please come to the main room to greet our new student'. Rogue sighed, making her way back down the stairs, hoping she wouldn’t have to face Bobby or Gambit.   
Leaning on the wall besides the Professor was a blonde haired boy who looked around 15. At first he seemed lost in thought, with a brooding look. As soon as more of the students filled in-when the girls came down, Rogue noticed-he perked up, ruffling his hair a little and looked around.   
“Students, this is Daniel Ted. He’ll be joining us for the time being. I expect you can help him feel at home,” the Professor then, with the faintest of smirks, wheeled away, leaving him at the mercy of the students.  
“Hey,” he waved a little. “Nice to meet you,” Rogue couldn’t help but notice how his gaze focused on Rin, the other new girl, and the only one who was blushing furiously. “I hope that we can all get to know each other quite well.”  
Great, Rogue thought to herself. Another Gambit.   
End Credits  
Promo for next episode:  
After an attack at the mansion, Jean goes to investigate their new enemy, who turns out to be more than she expected. The other students decide to have contests with their powers, which has bad results.


	3. Shatter Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This episode's promo:  
> After an attack on the Mansion, Jean goes to investigate a new enemy, who turns out to be more than she expected. The other students have contests with their powers, which has bad results.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:   
> as I always say, this story is based off the amazing ARogueGambit7 's story 'Mutant High:Revolutionary' a really amazing story and the place I got the idea and set up for this. Go read it.

Season One, Episode Three  
Shatter Me   
At the Mansion  
Rogue awkwardly made her way down to the main room of the Mansion. Much like a regular school, they had the weekend off to do whatever they pleased. Rogue had decided that she was going to use this time to apologize for her less than ladylike behavior the night before towards Gambit. She was still irritated that he hadn’t shown up to the movies, but she realized that she hadn’t even stopped to listen to his explanation. It could’ve been an emergency, or a family matter, or maybe he wasn’t feeling good and had decided to stay back for a perfectly normal reason.   
She wasn’t the only one down there. The new kid, Daniel, who she’d proclaimed as a mini Gambit, was there. He’d proven her wrong in the short time that she’d seen him. He wasn’t nearly as arrogant or proud, and he didn’t flirt as openly. Instead he tried to be a little impressive, and be funny. That mainly ended in him telling a joke and laughing too loudly, but he didn’t seem to mind too much. Rin became fast friends with him-she became fast friends with everyone-and he paid her more attention than the rest. It wasn’t that he was popular, but he’d made a few friends of the other students. Rogue could tell that he was flirting with her, but she seemed to be acting like she did with everyone else, laughing and being nice in general. Except he didn’t know that that was how she always was.   
Rogue entered the room hesitantly, looking around for Gambit. He was lounging on one of the chairs by the coffee table, talking to Piotr. Piotr and Gambit were friends, as far as Rogue could tell. As soon as Gambit saw Rogue, however, he excused himself and walked over to her.   
“Hello,” was all he said. He didn’t seem furious, or angry at all. Just slightly more reserved than before, and the absence of the chère did not go unnoticed. Not that she expected it, but it showed he was a little upset.   
“Gambit,” Rogue had prepared herself for this before hand, practicing to herself. She wasn’t big on apologizes, and she wanted to actually sound sincere. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t like the thought of Gambit being mad at her. “Ah’m really sorry about how ah acted last night. Ah was upset and angry and ah took it out on you, and that wasn’t fair of me. Ah’m sorry,” she looked nervously at her feet. She’d said what she meant to say, all she could hope for was that he got it.  
His smile returned brightly. “Aw, chère, you know Gambit will always-”  
His acceptance was interrupted by the shattering of glass. Every piece of glass in the Mansion, all of the windows, the glass table, all of it, came crashing to the ground as it all shattered. Rogue made the mistake of looking up. The chandelier above them fell, too, because it was made of glass, rather than metal. Large and small shards alike crashed onto the students. When it was done, a few students were unconscious, and almost all of them were bleeding, some more excessively than others. Panting, Rogue looked up at Gambit, who had a large cut running down his collar bone and another on her cheek, and put her hand to her forehead above her eyebrow, where she had a piece of glass stuck. Pulling it out shakily, Rogue looked around to the rest of the room.   
Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons  
Wolverine: Hugh Jackman  
Rogue: Anna Paquin  
Shadowcat: Ellen Page  
Professor X: Patrick Stewart  
Gambit: Taylor Kitsch  
Jubilee: Julia Ling  
Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee  
Jean Grey: Famke Janssen  
Cyclops: James Marsden  
Storm: Halle Berry  
Iceman: Shawn Ashmore  
Colossus: Enver Gjokaj  
*Ice Queen: Danielle Campbell (young)  
*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young)   
Introducing:  
*Dylan Sprouse as Bolt  
and   
*Hailee Steinfeld as Shatter  
Guest Starring:  
Rebecca Romijn as Mystique  
Kelsey Grammer as Beast  
Nicolette Pierini as Magma

Beast was busy helping all of the students. Some had been lucky enough to be in their rooms, where the amount of glass was minimal. Others, like Rogue, needed stitches. There were only a few students more serious than that, needing real medical attention. The Professor wouldn’t tell them who had attacked them, or what had even really happened. All he did was tell them to go along as if nothing happened.   
Which was exactly what they planned to do.  
It was originally Jubilee and Kitty’s idea to have a contest using their powers. It very quickly extended to Rin, and of course the new kid Daniel was in if she was. Then Piotr and Kurt were joining, and Bobby and Amara soon followed suit. Rogue and Gambit both followed, joining in.  
“So, Kitty, what’s the first game?” Amara asked curiously. After all, it was her idea, so people expected her to know what to do.  
“I, uh,” Kitty looked to Jubilee for assistance.   
“The first thing is a race!” Jubilee said eagerly.   
Bobby didn’t looked convinced. “A race? That doesn’t sound that fun.”  
But Jubilee put on her most convincing expression and her hands on her hips. “Oh but it is. We’ll do it with powers, so we can slow other people down and push ourselves ahead. Besides, do you have any better ideas?”  
Bobby thought for a moment, then sighed. “No. Where we gonna race?”  
“Outside. Duh. Let’s go!” Jubilee bounced out the door.  
In the Professor’s office  
“Professor, do you have any idea who caused the attack?” Storm asked him.  
He sighed, folding his hands. “No, I’m afraid not. I didn’t even sense anything before hand, aside from a rather loud sense of fear. I didn't think anything of it until after the fact.”  
“Professor,” Jean said slowly. “Do you think that maybe this has something to do with Mystique? Maybe this is her retaliation after what happened with Rin.”  
The Professor considered this, leaning back in his chair. “Perhaps. I have been watching her, but she’s found a way to block me, and the little bit I have been able to get hasn’t shown her looking to recruit any more pupils.”  
“Maybe she isn’t trying to recruit,” Scott suggested. “You said that you felt a sense of fear before hand? Maybe she’s blackmailing someone.”  
“You think that she was using mutants to do her bidding by force rather than trying to ask for help?” Jean asked, repulsed. “That’s...not too surprising.”  
“I have to agree with Scott, that does sound like a likely theory. I suppose that the only reason I didn’t think of that was because I didn’t want to,” the Professor said sadly. “Raven was like a sister to me. I hate to think of her like that. But I suppose it’s our best option.”  
“Professor, have you used Cerebro to find out who was doing that last night?” Storm asked hesitantly, as if she was afraid to question her mentor. She thought very highly of him and didn’t want to contradict his judgement.  
“I’m afraid, Ororo, that I haven’t had much of a chance. I’ve been spending the day helping take care of injured students and cleaning up the damage to look. But I will do it soon, perhaps right after this,” the Professor admits. “I’m afraid that there’s more to this than we might imagine.”  
Commercial Break  
Everyone was lined up at the start line, anticipating the race. The normal competitiveness of the students was increased due to the stress of the recent attack, and Rogue figured that this could only end badly.  
Rogue’s ‘power’ wouldn’t help her in anyway unless she touched someone to get an advantage, but there was no way that she would, not just because dealing with their psych would be a pain, but she would never intentionally hurt someone. So as she stretched a little at the start line, she knew that the main reason she was participating was for the sheer entertainment that these contests were sure to bring.   
“Ready?” Kitty called out. There was a loud chorus of yes’ and cheering. “Three, two one, go!” Kitty shouted as she began running along with everyone else. She used her powers to phase through other people, passing a few that way. Bobby used his ice to slip the competitors, and Rogue barely had time to jump over it. Gambit winked at Rogue before he threw a charged playing card at her, which caused her to launch herself to the side to avoid the explosion.   
Jubilee threw her mini-fireworks at her competitors, cheering loudly when she pulled ahead. However, it soon became her and Bobby were tied neck and neck, and when Jubilee crossed in front, she was cheering loudly until she saw Kurt leaning against a tree dismissively.  
“Vhat took you guys so long?” he said with a smirk. Earlier in the day he’d teleported out of the way of a large piece of glass, taking Amara out of the way too, so both had emerged with mild cuts. Jubilee scowled, angry to have been beaten.  
“The point of a race is to run,” Jubilee frowned.   
“You said ve could use our powers. I did,” Kurt smiled as Bobby lunged at him to tackle him. They play fought for a moment, then Kurt teleported away, causing Bobby to crash to the ground.  
By now everyone had finished, and were glad to have let out some of their excess energy. After chatting for a moment, Kurt asked, “Vell? Vhat’s next?”  
In Cerebro  
The Professor put the headgear on, hesitant as always to opening his mind to that many other people. But the fear was hardly anything after all these years, so it passed within the second. He could feel the hundreds of thousands of mutants living in just the United States. He searched back to earlier in the day, trying to find mutant activity there. Then, he zeroed in on the Mansion, which didn’t clear things up much. He could sense that Gambit had been charging and decharging playing cards before it happened, and Kitty had phased through her bag to grab her phone. He felt the buzz of Rogue’s power that he always felt because it was always on, and Nightcrawler had teleported somewhere.  
Then the event came, and the amount of powers increased. Kitty phased her and Jubilee through the glass, Nightcrawler teleported Amara and himself away. Bobby had turned to his solid ice form to not get injured by the glass. However, he saw that some were not so lucky. He saw some students, like Rogue had, get several large pieces of glass stuck in them. He saw others, like Gambit, get long cuts that thankfully weren’t deep. Very few had been injured more than that, but a few students were rendered unconscious from the falling glass. It hurt the Professor to have to watch again, but then he felt a new mind presence, one that he hadn’t felt before. There were mild defenses on it, but he could tell that they weren’t very good at putting up blocks and it was a last minute thing.   
Looking in someone’s mind in the past was a tad bit harder than the Professor was used to, so it took a few minutes of focus to get a sense of the mind. Even then, he couldn’t get much of a motive, just a picture in his mind of who the attacker was. The culprit looked like a young girl, around 15, but he wasn’t sure. He felt her waves of power as she shattered all of the glass, and for the first time he noticed that some of the wood in the porch in front of the Mansion had large cracks appear in it.   
The last thing he saw before he withdrew was a name. Regina Duchani. That was enough, but even if he wanted to he couldn’t learn any more. Perhaps her mental block was stronger than he had first anticipated. Never the less, he had enough information to track her down. He removed the headset and left Cerebro, debating what to do. On one hand, she’d attacked the school and injured several students, but on the other hand, she was only a kid, and she had seen absolutely terrified, like she thought if she didn't do this she would die.   
There was certainly a lesson to be learned in this, but it was also a matter of students safety. Finally, he made a decision.  
In the Professor’s office  
“Jean, Scott, I have a mission for you,” the Professor started, speaking to the two of his oldest students. He’d had them for years and years, since they were kids. It always seemed strange to see them this old, and it made him feel old. The thought itself brought a little bit of a smile to his face. “I’ve managed to find the name of the attacker. Her name is Regina Duchani, and she should still be in this area. I think it’ll be fairly easy to track her, I have a feeling she hasn’t gotten far yet.”  
“What do you want us to do with her? Find information?” Scott asked. He knew that the Professor would never ask them to attack someone when they didn’t know the entire story.   
“I want you and Jean to go and talk to her. I believe there is more to this than we could’ve imagined. You should leave as soon as possible,” the Professor said.   
“Professor, what aren’t you telling us?” Jean asked. “Is something wrong?”  
The Professor sighed. He should’ve known they would guess when he was holding something back. “There is something that I am not telling you, but trust me when I say that it is not something dangerous, nor something that will hurt you. I simply wish to see how you will react. What decisions you will make, how you will act.”  
The momentary silence in the room was heavy before Jean spoke. “I can assure you Professor that every decision we make will be one that we are sure you would make in our places.”  
The Professor smiled assuringly. “I trust you guys completely, and I have faith that you will make the best choices. As long as you remember not to act rashly.”   
Scott and Jean nodded. “We will.”  
“Then I suggest you get going, before she has the chance to leave,” with that, Scott and Jean left the Mansion.   
Commercial Break  
A few games later, all of the kids were having more fun than they’d had in a while, and the stress in the air was almost all gone. They decided to do a potato sack race, in which Kurt was able to use is teleporting powers to win again. However, in the water balloon toss, Rin and Daniel won due to Rin being able to control the water to make it move as she pleased. Kitty had even managed to sneak down and ‘borrow’ some bow and arrows for an archery contest, one that no one could really use their gift to win, not that they didn’t try. Gambit charged Piotr’s arrow so that it exploded before it hit the target. Jubilee would launch her fireworks to cause the arrow to go off course, and Bobby froze the others arrows, causing them to drop to the ground. To the astonishment of everybody, Rogue won that contest, with no use of powers whatsoever.   
“Gambit sees dat chère has many hidden talents. Maybe she’ll show Gambit a few?” he winked at her, causing Rogue to groan in exasperation.   
“Don’t ya’ ever stop?” she grumbled.   
“Gambit don’ think you want him to stop, no?” Rogue reddened immensely, and once Bobby heard, he scowled and stormed away to where Kitty and Piotr were talking.   
“Just-stop,” Rogue ordered, walking away towards where the rest of the students were.   
Bobby looked at Rogue strangely, as if he were almost mad at her but not quite, and she raised an eyebrow at him, asking the question silently. He nodded almost immediately, and Rogue went to stand by him, glad the fight was behind them.   
“So what’s next? Bullfighting?” Rogue half joked.  
“Actually I was thinking maybe we could go in the pool. Go swimming, relax, do a few contests in there. I think it sounds fun,” Kitty smiles.   
Rogue shifted uncomfortably. Going swimming wasn’t easy for her, she had to keep all of her skin covered, so wearing an actual bathing suite was out of the question. And swimming in a long sleeve shirt, pants, and gloves took some of the fun out of it. She said jokingly, “Well we can relax, or we can do some games. I don’t think that we can have both.”  
Everyone laughed, and Rogue smiled.   
Rin and Daniel were talking, leaning against a tree as the others discussed the plans for the next game.   
“And after Mystique left,” Rin continued, telling her story of coming to the Mansion. “The Professor talked to my parents, and I came here!” she ended the story with a giggle of sorts, smiling to her new found friend. “Okay, I’ve talked enough. Your turn.”  
Daniel sighed, not smiling for a brief moment. “Well, my powers only came in very recently. I was at a concert with my parents, seeing Fall Out Boy-”  
“Really?” Rin interrupted.  
“Yeah. We had good seats, too. Anyway, that was the most unlucky time. I could feel all of the electricity buzzing through the air, all of it! I should’ve just ignored it, but I couldn’t. Then, I accidentally sucked it all up. It was all inside of me, and all of the lights went out and the speakers died and there was a lot of screaming. But I couldn’t hold it in, not that much, so I had to let it go, and it shot into the air like lightning. It hit the roof because it had power cords in it, and the roof caved in, separating me from my parents and knocking me out.   
“When I came to, I was being cared for by a paramedic. They took me to the police and I told them what my name was, and they let me stay there. But when they found out that I was a mutant, and that I was the one to cause the accident, they locked me up on destruction of property and even charged me of murder because some people died. I was pretty messed up, but then the Professor came and sorted things out and talked to me. And then he said I could stay here until they found my parents,” Daniel shrugged. “And I agreed.”  
“Woah. That sucks,” Rin said sympathetically. “Sorry.”  
He was sad for a moment or two, then shrugged. “I think that I’ll find them. Besides, if I never came here, I never would’ve met you,” Rin blushed, then spoke.  
“Thanks. You’re pretty awesome yourself,” she looked over towards the other students. “I think that we should go and join them. I can’t wait for the next game!”   
“Okay,” Daniel said, walking with her. As Rin got closer, she saw that Matt was leaning against the Mansion’s outside wall, watching them. “Who’s the creepy guy leaning on the building?” he asked, pointing him out.  
“Oh! That’s Matt. He’s not creepy. He acts like he doesn’t care and he hates people, but he’s actually really nice. But he won’t let you know it,” Rin waves wildly. “HI MATT!” he looked up at her, slightly exasperated at her enthusiasm.   
“Rin,” she barely heard him mutter, lifting his hand ever so slightly in his version of a wave. He narrowed his eyes slightly when he saw Daniel, but didn’t say anything.   
Westchester, New York  
Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus plays over next few scenes  
Jean and Scott parked their car on the side of the road, Scott doing research on the computer that he brought.   
“Okay. I think I have an idea of where she might be. There’s an online article about the massive amount of pick pocketing, but this is New York, so that’s not new. What is new is apparently parents are trying to track down their daughter, someone with the same name. And someone filed a police report for a missing credit card, said that some ‘latina girl’ stole it off of him,” Scott read.  
“Scott, how do we know that the latina girl was her?” Jean pointed out. “We don’t even know if she’s latina, and even if she was, there’s tons of latinas in New York.”  
“Well, her parents I was able to find on Facebook, and they’re latina. Also, he said that she must’ve been a mutant, because right before she stole the card-get this- the window on the store next to him shattered, momentarily distracting him,” Scott smiled triumphantly.   
“That’s our girl. Where is she now?” Jean asked him.   
“Can you search around in the minds to see if she’s in this area? It would be a lot faster than me searching on my computer,” Scott suggested.  
Jean nodded, then closed her eyes, listening. There were so many voices that at first it was overwhelming. Then she caught a trail of a thought that tugged at her interest. I can’t believe I did that. If they don’t find me and kill me, that women certainly will. What if I killed someone in there? That was a lot of glass. Oh God, what have I done? No. Calm down. You did what you had to. Shut up and drink your coffee.  
Jean opened her eyes. “I found her. She’s in that restaurant,” Jean pointed. They both left the car, hiding their valuables-this was New York-and headed into the restaurant. It was pretty packed, and Jean at first didn’t notice anyone out of the ordinary. She was reluctant to search in the minds of everyone again-she always felt like it was an invasion of privacy-so she looked around at the people to see if anyone seemed like this Regina. She had a small feeling that she knew what the Professor had neglected to mention, which was only confirmed when she saw a young girl who matched the description sitting alone at a table, a small look of fear on her face as she drank a cup of coffee.   
Slowly, Jean reached into her mind. There were remnants of a barrier or wall, but it was clear that even if had once been strong, she had no idea how to keep it up. It’s okay. Calm down, Regina, you are acting like you’ve never done something dangerous or illegal before. Jean slowly pointed to Scott where the girl was sitting.   
“Her. That’s Regina Duchani,” she said softly, looking at the young girl.  
“Her? She’s just a kid! How can she do that much damage?” Scott scowled, and acted as if he were going to go over and talk to her, but Jean touched his shoulder.   
“I think that I should talk to her. Alone. I can sense that she’s scared, so I don’t think that she was doing this willingly. She just needs to know that what’s she’s going through-she’s not alone. I think I just need to let her know that there’s people out there who she can relate to, that we can help her,” Jean said, looking at him in the eyes. Well, as much as she could, at least.  
“And you don’t think that I can tell her that?” Scott scoffed.   
“Well...you don’t always come off too friendly. And I have a feeling that she’s the type to not like people telling her what to do,” Jean smiled softly, and Scott gave in.  
“Fine, but I’m not leaving the restaurant. I’ll sit over there,” he points to a table on the other side of the building.   
“I’ll be fine. Just go,” Jean shoved him slightly, then headed towards the girl. “Hello? Regina Duchani?”  
Commercial Break  
When someone said Regina’s name, her real name, she immediately stiffened up. Who was she? How did she know her? Was she one of hers? Did Regina not do good enough and now she was going to pay the price?  
Regina mentally shook her head. If she’d messed up, and they wanted her dead, she’d be dead. No, this must be someone her parents sent, or maybe about the card she took. The person had her description, however vague it was. Finally she decided to go with her usual defense. “Quién eres? Déjame en paz , yo no hablo Inglés,” (Who are you? Leave me alone, I don’t speak English.) Not true at all, but sometimes it threw people off enough to make them leave her alone.   
Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to apply to this redheaded intruder. “Regina, I know that you can speak English. You can trust me. I’m like you.”  
Not likely, Regina thought to herself.   
“My name’s Jean Grey. I attend the school that you, uh, visited this morning,” Jean said, not sure how else to phrase it.   
The cup at the table next to them shattered, causing the people to jump in confusion. Regina clutched her fists, taking a calming breath to keep it from happening again. “Te lo digo , no sé lo que estás hablando. Ahora déjame sola,” (I’m telling you, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Now leave me alone.)  
“Regina, I’m not going to hurt you. I think that there’s more to this story than you blowing up all of the windows of a school for fun,” Jean spoke in soft reassuring tones, and Regina wanted to trust her. But she couldn’t tell anyone, or she would kill her. And her family. And that was the last thing that Regina wanted.  
At the Mansion  
The students splashed around in the pool, laughing and having fun. They had a few contests, like races in the water and holding breath contests, but they mostly just messed around. Rogue had set her feet in the water, but going in the water in her clothes was uncomfortable, so she didn’t go in. That didn’t stop Gambit from splashing her as much as possible so she was just as wet as if she’d gone under all the way.   
It wasn’t just her that he was shooting. He hand somehow gotten his hands on a water gun, and was using it as his own personal weapon.   
“Gambit!” Rogue shrieked as she was hit yet again. “Ah swear, if ya’ don’t stop squirtin’ me, ah will drain ya dry!” she threatened. Gambit then turned to Kitty, and she phased last minute through the water, but slipped in a puddle, phasing through the emergency controls on the wall. Suddenly they shorted out, the electricity going haywire and the building shutting down. The lights went beserk and the doors locked.  
“What the-” Kitty said, looking around at the room in confusion. “What’s happening?”  
“Ah think that ya’ broke the machine. We’re trapped,” Rogue gulped, standing up and looking around at the sparking electricity.   
Westchester, New York  
“Regina, you have to trust me. The Professor’s not angry, but you have to explain,” Jean begged.   
Regina figured that she was a telepath and that’s why she understood her. She didn’t seem like she was the type to be fluent in Spanish. Maybe...maybe she didn’t have to tell her. Maybe this redhead, Jean, could read Regina’s mind, see what had happened. She’d promised that she wouldn’t tell anyone, but if a telepath had unsuspectingly read her mind and saw that, well Regina couldn’t be blamed.   
“Ella me vuelve loco la promesa de que no se lo diría a nadie. Pero tal vez si usted lo vio usted mismo, usted podría ... entender,” (She made me promise that I wouldn’t tell anyone. But maybe if you saw it yourself, you could...understand.) Regina muttered. Jean looked at her, confused. Was she...inviting her into her mind?  
A small nod from Regina confirmed it. Jean closed her eyes, and pushed.   
She saw a kid Regina, maybe twelve or thirteen, arguing with a boy. Such a sweet looking girl packed such a fierce temper. As she screams, the glass in the room shatters. She saw Regina trying oh so hard to keep her temper in check, but failing too often. Then she was taking a driving test, nervous as hell already but then when her instructor scolded her to fix her grip, nerves gave way to anger and the car shattered, nearly killing the instructor. After that Regina left, not wanting to hurt anyone and not wanting to have to hear her parents kick her out, or send her away.  
More recently, Jean saw Regina stealing to survive, making a living the way she could until she could be old enough to get a good job. Then she saw Mystique appearing to Regina.   
“I have a mission for you. I will pay you if you can do it,” she offered, and Jean saw Regina’s expression peak at the mention of money. But once she realized what it was, she tried to refuse. “If you don’t do this, you will regret it. I will make sure that not a day of your life goes by that you don’t. And I promise, it won’t be long,” Regina looked around and saw people staring right at her. Someone wearing goggles, someone who looked like he had forgotten how to shave, and someone who kept flicking a lighter on with a maniac like expression. She knew that Mystique had an extensive network of people.   
She saw Regina standing on the border of the Mansion, focusing hard. “I don’t think I can do it,” she said to Mystique, who stared right back.   
“You can. Now do it,” Mystique ordered. Regina focused, rightly scared out of her wits, and when everything was broken, she collapsed back into the grass. When she was able to focus again, Mystique was gone. She ran, but she needed to wait first. To make sure that she hadn’t done something wrong.   
Jean opened her eyes, staring at Regina. “I see. Well, that doesn’t change anything. I know that women, I know Mystique. She’s retaliating against us for something we did. It’s not your fault. You’re safe with us.”  
Regina wanted to believe her. A small part of her argued that she could take care of herself, that she didn’t need help from her. But then reason took over, and she realized that this was the best option.   
“If I go with you, you need to promise me three things,” she spoke softly, hoping to death that there wasn’t anyone listening.   
“Name it,” Jean smiled.   
“That this women, Mystique, can’t find me,” Regina started. “And that I won’t be punished for my actions. As you saw, it’s not entirely my fault. I don’t want anyone, student or staff, to yell at me. Or I’ll leave,” she crossed her arms, leaning back. “And I don’t want to be held responsible to anything that I break. I don’t have the best control, and I assume that’s the point of the school. Still, things will break.”  
Jean nodded. “Deal. Now let’s go home.”  
Commercial Break  
At the Mansion  
The students were panicking. It was all chaos as everything locked down, trapping the students inside. Kitty was crying-she blamed herself-and Gambit was sullen, not speaking much because he also blamed himself.   
Rin stayed positive, assuring everyone that the Professor would help, he would get them out, and what’s so bad about being stuck in a pool room? They could swim and have fun until he found them. Then Bobby brutally reminded her that this defense mechanism prevented any telepaths from reading minds in here. And there was excess electricity shedding into the pool, so that wouldn’t be too safe.   
It was Daniel who had the idea. “Guys, I can absorb the energy from this machine thing, and then the defenses will go away, because nothing will be powering them!” he seemed excited and proud of himself for thinking that one up.  
Rogue nodded slowly. “It might work. We haven’t got any better ideas.”  
Bleeding Out by Imagine Dragons plays until End Credits  
Daniel smiled, then turned to the machine, focusing on the energy as it started to flow into him. At first he was smiling, but as the amount of energy increased, his expression grew more and more strained. “Uh, I can’t hold this much energy for long. Assistance, please?”   
Rogue pulled off her glove. “Ah can absorb some of the energy from ya-” she started, but then someone-she thought it was Amara, but in all honesty what happened next was so hectic that she wasn’t sure- came barreling past her, screaming at the top of her lungs, and ran into Rogue, who tumbled onto Kitty, her ungloved hand touching Kitty’s skin. The two girls froze for a moment until Rogue managed to pull away, and Kitty collapsed into the water, sinking down.  
They could’ve easily taken care of that, getting her out of there. The electricity was inside Daniel, therefore not shedding into the pool. But before anyone had the chance to go in and get her, Daniel suddenly lost control of the energy, and the lightning directed itself into the nearest conductor, which was unfortunately Rin, who was standing right besides Daniel.  
All of the thousands of volts charged into her, and she shuddered for a few moments, her eyes passing to the back of her head as her powers went berserk, the water freezing, then boiling, then hardening to glass. Finally all the electricity passed through her, and Rin collapsed to the ground, unresponsive.   
Suddenly, as if appearing from the shadows, Matt ran down next to her, bending besides her. “Rin!” he lifted her up, but she her head just rolled back. “What did you do to her?” he spat venomously towards Daniel, who was cowering in fear.   
“I- it was an accident,” he stuttered.  
While this was happening, Kitty was stuck inside the glasslike substance. “Kitty!” Bobby shouted.   
“I can phase through to get her-” Rogue said, but her teeth were gritting together as she felt a rush of her memories.   
Piotr shook his head, then turned into steel, punching through the glass like it was butter. He had a look of urgency in his eyes, one that Rogue didn’t expect to see. Within seconds he pulled her out, and you could see her breath again, but she was still unconscious. “Kitty?” he asked nervously, feeling her pulse, then sighing in obvious relief when it was still strong.   
Gambit wordlessly handed Rogue her other glove. At first it phased through her hand, and she had to bend down to pick it up again. The doors opened in the darkness since there was no power whatsoever, none from the original power source or the batteries. Matt picked up Rin wordlessly, checking her pulse, which was weak but still there. He shoved past Daniel, who looked like he wanted to help but didn’t know what to say.   
As they entered the Professor’s office, Matt carrying Rin and Piotr carrying Kitty, they saw Jean and Scott talking to him with a girl they hadn’t seen before. All four looked up at them, Jean immediately rising. “What’s happened?” she asked, looking from person to person.   
“I’m afraid,” Matt said, his voice low. “That it is a rather long story.”  
The Professor rushed them down to infirmary, where Beast plugged them in. Piotr told them a brief version of what happened, but made it clear that it wasn’t anybody’s fault.   
Beast checked out Kitty, then proclaimed that she was fine. “She’s just a little drain from, uh, touching Miss Rogue. I predict she’ll be awake by the end of the hour.”  
Piotr visibly sighed in relief. “That is good.”  
“Yeah, just peachy,” Matt grumbled. “What about Rin? She was the one who was electrocuted with thousands of bolts of electricity,” Matt wasn’t really used to being around the teachers, because aside from classes and the necessary Danger Room sessions, he stayed in his room, out of the way. He was sure the teachers were just as surprised to see him.   
Beast-Dr. McCoy here-lost his smile, but still tried to stay a little positive. “Well, it seems that all of her vitals are in order. The only thing to be sure of now is that when she wakes up she’s still our Rin.”  
“Clarify ‘our Rin’,” Matt demanded, eyebrows narrowed.   
“Well, occasionally, and more often with such a large amount of electricity like this, the patient in question can experience amnesia or changes in personality. Also, if something hurts or doesn’t feel right, she’ll be able to tell us,” Dr. McCoy explained. “But don’t worry, I’m sure that she’s fine.”   
End Credits  
Promo for next episode:  
The students are forced to live their worst nightmares, causing tensions to run high and secrets to be revealed.


	4. Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This episode's Promo:  
> The students are forced to live their worst nightmares, causing tensions to run high and secrets to be revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N  
> As I've said a million times, I got the idea for this story from ARogueGambit7 's 'Mutant High: Revolutionary' (really awesome, go read it)  
> Also, should I bring the Phoenix storyline in now or next 'season'? I have another villain I could use (yes, they're an OC but sorry I love her) and of course, I have a ton of other X Men enemies. So yeah. Comment what you think.

Season One, Episode Four  
Nightmares  
In Kitty’s room  
“We have gotten a lot of new students lately,” Kitty said suddenly, causing Rogue to look up from her paper.  
“What do ya’ mean?” Rogue asked, even though she knew the answer.  
“Well, within maybe three weeks, we’ve gotten: Gambit, Rin, Daniel, Regina, and now Danielle. That’s more than we used to get in six months,” Kitty thought about it for a moment then shrugged.  
That confused Rogue for a moment. “Who’s Danielle?”  
Kitty looked around, even though they were alone in her room, and scooted closer. “Well, the Professor didn’t announce her, but I saw him talking to a girl. From what I caught, her name is Danielle and she’s new here. I don’t think he is going to announce her, though. I waved at her and she looked away.”  
“Maybe. Ah don’ think it’s that big a deal. She’s probably just shy,” Rogue shrugged.  
“Maybe. Hey, can I borrow your notes on the assignment?” Kitty asked, changing the topic and picking up Rogue’s binder.  
“Didn’t you do your own?” Rogue asked rhetorically, handing them to her.  
In the Infirmary  
Rin’s skin felt strange and tingly like. She opened her eyes, but it took a few times, because they felt like they were glued together. Her throat felt like sandpaper, and she immediately sat up.  
“Hello?” she called out, her voice scratchy. Her memories were a bit iffy, she wasn’t quite sure what had happened. She remembered a pool, and little flashes of her friends. Daniel...Rogue...Kitty...she wasn’t sure.  
She was wearing a hospital gown, and she had an IV in her arm. She stood up from her bed, but she had to grab the side of it to balance herself. She walked out, only to be stopped by Dr. McCoy.  
“Miss Conair. Glad to see that you’re up and about. If you don’t mind, I would like to do a check up before you leave,” he said, leading her to her bed.  
“Oh, of course!” Rin smiles brightly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think of that,” she paused for a moment. “I’m sorry, but can you tell me what happened yesterday? I’m afraid I don’t remember much of it.”  
“Sure thing, my dear,” he said as he started checking up on her.  
Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons  
Wolverine: Hugh Jackman  
Rogue: Anna Paquin  
Shadowcat: Ellen Page  
Professor X: Patrick Stewart  
Gambit: Taylor Kitsch  
Jubilee: Julia Ling  
Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee  
Jean Grey: Famke Janssen  
Cyclops: James Marsden  
Storm: Halle Berry  
Iceman: Shawn Ashmore  
Colossus: Enver Gjokaj  
*Ice Queen: Danielle Campbell (young)  
*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young)  
*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse  
*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld  
Guest Starring:  
Amanda Troya as Danielle Moonstar  
Rebecca Romijn as Mystique  
In the Professor’s office  
The Professor’s class all sat around him, their chairs in a circular pattern. All of the students had a tired look, even the Professor seemed a bit drained. Kitty had unconsciously leaned onto Piotr’s shoulder, who stiffened for a moment, then relaxed. Bobby glanced at them, and so did Rogue, who wished that she could safely lean onto Bobby’s shoulder.  
“Hello. I can see that we’re all a little tired today, but if you’ll bear with me, I’ll try to make it interesting,” he put on a smile, and a few of the students smiled in return.  
Kitty noted that the new girl, Danielle, was here. So the Professor didn’t plan on announcing her. She wondered why not. Then she noticed Bobby was staring at her, and she blushed vividly, picking herself up from Piotr’s shoulder and studying the Professor.  
“So, today I would like to talk about…” Kitty quickly dazed off, going to her happy place and imaging what she would do later that night. Maybe she could drag Jubilee and Rogue shopping. She doubted Rogue would want to, but with Jubilee they might be able to convince her. Obviously they would invite Rin, and maybe they could even convince the new girl to go with them.  
Kitty wasn’t the only one distracted. Gambit was thinking about a letter that he had received the night before from Henri. It was short, most of it was encoded, but Gambit got the message. Belladonna was angry. Her bastard of a brother had caused this whole mess, but now all of it was being dumped onto him. He’d take care of it, but he had to agree with Henri’s suggestion-stay out of the action. If he had to, Gambit would fake his own death. It wouldn’t be the only time that he’d done that to escape someone. But lying to both the Guilds would be considerably more dangerous, and if he could just disappear and be forgotten, that would be much easier.  
Even Rogue was distracted, and instead of taking notes as usual, she was staring at her paper as if it could give her all the answers she needed. In fact, she was so lost in thought that when the bell rang signaling it was time to go, she jumped, then hurriedly packed away her stuff, leaving the room before anyone else.  
“Chère, what’s wrong?” Gambit asked, startling her. How did he manage to get ahead of her?  
“Nothin’. Ah’m just tired,” Rogue said, pulling ahead of him.  
“You seem nervous. As if you expect someone to jump out of the corners and attack you,” Gambit kept his pace up with hers.  
“Ah’m fine, Gambit,” Rogue walked even faster to her next class. “And ah’m not afraid. Nothin’s safer than the Mansion.”  
Gambit sensed that he was in dangerous waters, so he changed the subject. “Gambit hear that Kitty is gonna team up with Jubilee to convince you to go shopping with dem, Rin and da new girl.”  
Rogue’s eyes widened, and then she shook her head. “Ah can’t believe them. Rin just got out of the infirmary this mornin’, they don’ even know the new girl, and ah have enough homework to last me a lifetime. So do they. Yet still, they want to go shopping,” she smiled a little bit. “Thanks for the warnin’, Gambit. See ya ’round.”  
She walked away, Gambit staring after her. There’s that smile. He thought to himself. 

Kitty saw the new girl up ahead, and tugged Jubilee’s shoulder, both of them running up to her.  
“Hello! I’m Kitty, this is Jubilee. We can’t help notice that you seem a little alone today, and since you’re new, we were wondering if you wanted to go shopping with us and a few others tonight?” Kitty asked hopefully.  
The new girl, Danielle, smiled weakly but shook her head. “I’m sorry. You seem nice, but I have to do homework. Besides, I’m not the shopping type,” she looked at Kitty and Jubilee’s crestfallen expressions, feeling a little guilty. “But you both seem really nice, though. Maybe another time?”  
Both of the girls smiled. “Of course,” Kitty grinned, turning to Jubilee for a moment to show her excitement of being able to hang out with the new girl who nobody knew anything about. “Say, what’s your-” she turned around to see that Danielle had already left, going to her next class rather quickly. “Power,” she finished, her voice sounding deflated.  
Commercial Break  
In Kitty’s room  
Kitty slept restlessly, tossing and turning.  
'She was walking across the lawn, it was a perfectly normal day, but something felt off. Suddenly she felt herself fall, and she couldn’t breathe. She was falling through the Earth, and she kept going down, she couldn’t stop. Kitty prayed there was a cave system or something, but none showed. She was going to fall straight to the center of the Earth! Kitty tried to phase back up, but she was running out of air….'  
Kitty sat up with a gasp, the sensation of falling on her bed running through her. That nightmare...it had seemed so vivid. Like it was real. Sighing rather dramatically, she stood up, rinsing her face off in the bathroom. She decided that some air would do her some good, clearing her head. Creeping sleepily into the hallway, she went to get a water.  
In Gambit’s room  
Gambit didn’t sleep much that night, instead searching up news in New Orleans to find out what Belladonna was up to. He decided around two in the morning to get some air, so he wandered around in the hallway, restless.  
He wasn’t the only restless sleeper that night. He passed Kitty, her hair in a messy ponytail as she walked back from the kitchen with a glass of water, hardly acknowledging him. He headed back to his hall, ready to go back to sleep, when he heard a loud scream coming from the girls hall.  
He ran that way, but stopped around the corner when he saw Logan get into the room-Rogue’s room-first. He started there again, but stopped himself just outside the door when he saw that nobody was attacking her, it was just a nightmare. Logan would skewer him if he tried to help. He already had made it clear that Gambit wasn’t supposed to go near Rogue-not that he’d listened-but still, he didn’t want to push it.  
In Rogue’s room  
Logan burst into Rogue’s room, expecting to see an intruder, but instead all he saw was her fitfully fighting at nothing in her bed. She screamed out again, and this time it sounded like someone was trying to kill her.  
“No! No! Leave me alone!” tears were running down her face.  
“Hey, kid,” Logan tried to shake her gently awake, with no response. He noticed that half of her bedsheets had ended up on the floor. Trying again, he said a little louder, “Rogue! Wake up. It’s just a dream.”  
Rogue opened her eyes, which were wild and afraid, then sat up, confused. “Logan-ah-what happened?”  
Logan looked a little afraid for her, then he said, “you were having a nightmare, I think. I’m sure as hell it ain’t a dream. You okay, kid?”  
Rogue looked distant for a moment. “Ah-ah think so. Sorry ta wake ya. Thanks for wakin’ me up.”  
Logan looked at her suspiciously. He knew that she was hiding something, but he didn’t say anything. “Okay, if you say so. My room’s just down the hall if you need anything, alright?”  
Rogue nodded numbly, then went to pick up the sheets. Logan studied her for a moment before disappearing out the door and into the hall. Gambit watched from behind the corner, listening to as much as he could. Once he was sure that Logan was gone, he crept closer to the door, listening in.  
It sounded like Rogue was crying, and when he peeked in, he saw that she was. Thankfully her back was facing him, and he had been trained to be quiet, so she didn’t know.  
After a moment she gathered herself, climbing into bed and facing her window as she lay down. Gambit considered going in there to comfort her, but figured that she’d try to kill him. He walked out of her room, deciding to ask her tomorrow.  
Kurt’s room  
It seemed that Kitty and Rogue weren’t the only ones with nightmares. As the blue skinned mutant tossed and turned in his bed, he was facing his own fear.  
'He saw a landscape that was barren, wasted. He was floating through the air, and there were creatures below him. It was all familiar, and strangely peaceful. Then one of the dinosaur like creatures noticed him, running towards him screeching. It attacked him, and Kurt tried to teleport away, but he was stuck there. He pulled away, trying to fight back, but other creatures joined the Let’s-Hunt-the-Blue-Guy cause, and he was dragged down into the lava below.'  
Kurt woke up, startled and confused. What was that? He’d never been there before, but it seemed so real and lifelike that he had to have seen it somewhere before. Maybe in a movie. He teleported to the other side of the room to make sure that his powers were still working, and when they were, appeared back in his bed, worried, but slightly relieved that it was all a dream.  
Just as he was falling asleep, in the back of his mind, he realized where he’d seen that landscape before, and the fear reinstated itself.  
In Storm’s room  
Something woke Storm up, and she wasn’t sure what it was. Then she felt it, 'the ground shaking, and suddenly the walls were moving forward, closer and closer until she couldn’t breath.  
“No!” She screamed out, and lightning crackled through the room in an effort to keep the walls at bay. They continued to close in, until they were so close that her bed itself was cracking under the pressure. Soon the bed would break, and so would she. The small confining space caused Ororo to begin to panic, fears racing towards her. She felt like she would die until-'  
She sat up suddenly, and looked around the room. It was perfectly normal. Not closing in on her, all the walls were in their place, as were the paintings. It was just a nightmare. “An extremely vivid one,” Ororo muttered to herself before lying back down. But nightmare or not, it had shaken her. Now she didn’t know if she could go back to sleep.  
In Logan’s room  
Logan stalked back to his own room, tired and grumpy. Not at Rogue, it wasn’t her fault that she had a nightmare, and from the way she was screaming he wasn’t sure if it was a nightmare or she was being attacked. Even though he’d woken her up, and she’d said that she was okay, he knew that she wasn’t. Just like he knew that she was hiding something.  
He fell asleep almost the second that his head hit the pillow, and that’s when the dreams came.  
It was just flashes at first. He caught words like “Weapon X” and “You’ll be stronger than you could imagine.” But then it became very vivid.  
'He was tied to the operation table, a mask on his face. They lowered him down, and then suddenly there were needles, and then a pain that he’d never felt before. He was underwater, but he still thrashed and kicked, desperate to get away. The scientists just watched with a horrific interest, smiling at him the entire time. '  
Logan woke up with a shout, his claws extended. But he was back in his room. Nobody was trying to hurt him. It was just a dream. Or a memory.  
Commercial Break  
In the Mansion  
Everyone was tired the next day, and extremely distracted. Still, if a few students had given up their pride, they would realize that everyone had a nightmare. Still, it remained hushed whispers between friends, a coincidence. A few people blamed it on something in the water-jokingly-when they realized that their group of friends had all been unable to sleep peacefully the night before.  
Of course, a few of the students and teachers had it worse than others. Logan was exceedingly grumpy the next day, and most students did their best to avoid him. Ororo too, seemed shaken up. But she still managed to remain her composure, not letting it show. One of the newer students, Regina, was so angry that day that within the first hour she had broken ten things, and cracked many more. She hadn’t made many friends, but she seemed like a loner.  
Not that some people hadn’t tried.  
“Hello,” Gambit leaned on the wall in front of her flirtatiously. He always loved a challenge. “What’s such a jolie fille doing walking on her own?”  
Regina snorted. “A French speaking flirter. How original.”  
Gambit looked offended. “And what, pray dell, is wrong with French?”  
“Well, French is a dying language,” she smirked widely. “Besides, flirting in French with a Spanish girl would never work,” she walked away, but not before adding, “Ciertamente espero que funcione para las otras chicas , de lo contrario su ego podría dañarse,” (I certainly hope that works for the other girls, otherwise your ego might get damaged.)  
And that was the end of that.  
Gambit sighed, but he wasn’t too disappointed. While few women could ever withstand his charm, he wasn’t going to pursue the Spanish-speaking French-hating new girl. He had set his sights on someone else, for better or for worse. As if on cue, that same girl walked past him, her head bowed and bags under her eyes from lack of sleep.  
“Chère, you seem tired,” he said carefully, knowing he was treading on dangerous grounds.  
Rogue looked up at him, but still seemed distracted. “Yeah, ah didn’t get much sleep last night.”  
“Yeah, Gambit heard,” he shook his head a little bit. “Are you sure dere isn’t somethin’ you’d like ta tell Gambit? Maybe something about a nightmare?”  
Rogue tensed up, scowling at him. Even if she was going to tell someone-which she wasn’t-she wouldn’t tell Gambit first! She wasn’t dating him, they were just friends. Besides, it wasn’t his business. It wasn’t anyone’s. It was hers. “Gambit, ah’m not goin’ to repeat mahself. I’m fine, I just had a bad dream and couldn’ get back ta sleep,” she started to walk away, but he followed her.  
“Are you sure? Last night Gambit heard ya’ screamin’ like someone was gonna kill ya,” he pointed out, and Rogue paled.  
She opened her mouth as if she were going to reply, but stopped herself. She was not in the mood to argue with him. He wouldn’t understand. Nobody would. And she didn’t want to deal with any of that tonight. Instead of shouting at him, she stormed away to her class, even though it didn’t start for another ten or so minutes.  
In Storm’s classroom  
Ororo was going over her lesson plans for the day again when Logan knocked on the door, then walked in with an apple in his hands.  
“Yes, Logan?” she asked, looking up from her paperwork to the burly man.  
“I was wondering,” he paused, not sure if his thoughts were entirely irrational or not. “Did you have a nightmare last night? One so vivid that you could’ve sworn it was real?” Logan has had nightmares like this before, ones of his time at the Weapon X facility, but those were like flashbacks, little glimpses of memories. This felt like he was back there.  
Ororo was not entirely sure where this was going, but she decided to tell the truth incase it was something important. “Yes, in fact, I did. I dreamt of all the walls closing in on me. Is it important?” she asked.  
Logan nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think it might be. Rogue was having a nightmare so vivid last night that she woke me up with her screaming. I’ve heard the students talking, it seemed that nearly everyone of them had a nightmare last night about their deepest fear.”  
Ororo looked puzzled. “That’s strange. You think that it’s not a coincidence, I take it?”  
“Yeah. I think that it has something to do with the new telepath,” he said gruffly.  
“Danielle? I highly doubt that she would do something like this. From what I got, her people threw her out because they were afraid of what she could do. I don’t think that she would do something like this. At least not on purpose,” she added.  
Logan nodded, like what she said made sense, but something wasn’t adding up. “Didn’t the Professor say that she had ‘telepath like’ abilities, but she wasn’t a full blown telepath?”  
Ororo nodded. “He said that her ability had something to do with her own fear, but she had asked him not to tell anyone. Do you think-”  
Suddenly they stiffened up, not moving at all.  
“No!” Ororo put her hands up in the air like trying to stop something.  
'Where did Logan go? Ororo looked around her classroom, but it wasn’t her classroom anymore. The desks had disappeared, as did the widows. She was just in a plain square room, and the walls were shrinking, tighter and tighter. Ororo pressed her hands as if to stop them, but they pressed in until she barely had room to sit down, which she did, and wept. '  
Logan was too, stiff. He shook his arms, but something was keeping him still. He couldn’t move at all, like he was tied down.  
'“You didn’t believe that you could escape us, did you, Wolverine?” Striker said, smiling cruelly. “We never lost you. But now we are ready to continue our testing on you. And this time, we won’t let you go.”  
“NO!” Logan shouted, but he couldn’t get away. The bonds were too tight for even him to break.'  
Jean Grey’s office  
Jean didn’t notice the sudden quietness in the hall at first. She was entirely too distracted with trying to figure out how to fix the new girl’s schedule. Apparently the first time she had put her in an extra danger room class instead of a History class. But she couldn’t figure out how she did, and now she’d have to fix it and tell the Danielle-who hopefully wasn’t scared off by the extra Danger room session-about the mistake.  
Suddenly, however, Gambit burst into the room, looking worried.  
“Sorry ta interrupt whatever it is you’re doing, but I dink we have an emergency,” he said, gesturing to the room behind him.  
Commercial Break  
In the Mansion’s Living room  
All of the students were frozen, or moving but it was as if they were seeing things. Some stood still, like Regina:  
'“Estupida!” (stupid girl) “You can’t do anything,” a woman who looked like she could be Regina’s mother was towering over her, but she was larger than life. “I tried to help you, but some people just can’t be helped!”  
At first Regina was afraid, cowering, but then her anger built up so she couldn’t hold it back. “YOU THE WORST!” she shouted, and all of the windows burst. “I-” she shouted a word that wasn’t very ladylike. “HATE YOU!” she was clenching her fist, and if possible, her anger grew. She’d never been good at holding her temper. She wanted to kill this woman, despite everything that had told her not to.'  
The glass was shattered onto the ground, but nobody noticed it.  
A few people were moving, like Daniel, who was looking around and picking up objects that nobody else could see.  
'“Mom!” he shouted, looking around the stadium. “Dad! Where are you!” he looked around the wreckage, trying to find anything he could.  
“It’s your fault,” a ghastly voice said from behind him. He turned around to see his parents staring at him as if he were a monster.  
His relief of finding them showed on his face, but then immediately disappeared when he saw their faces. “What-what do you mean?” he asked. “It was an accident, I didn’t know I could-”  
“You did this! Now nobody knows where we are! And if they did, they wouldn’t tell you! You caused this!” they snarled at him.'  
Rin was on the ground, sobbing openly. The girl who hardly ever stopped smiling was crying so much it was hard to breath.  
'“You hideous monster!” someone shouted at her. She didn’t really have a face, but Rin knew who it was supposed to represent. What it was supposed to.  
“You are a deformity! A stain on the genepool, on the bloodline, on everything! You should kill yourself!” they laughed cruelly, beating down on Rin. If she looked beyond them, she could see thousands and thousands of people, all laughing at her, yelling at her, all of it. '  
Matt looked as he always did, sullen and angry at the world. The only sign that he saw anything was the movement of his eyes.  
'“Freak!” someone shouted at him. He was in his old school, the place where he was the ruler that people feared, and some adored. He turned to face the person who insulted him and made a small movement with his hand. At first the insulter panicked as they all did, at the lack of his senses. He was blind, deaf, he couldn’t touch, taste, smell, none of that. He was felt what could probably be described as floating. But then realization came to him. This was all in his head. As the insulter realized that, so did Matt.' For a moment, he saw the room, he saw people freaking out at what they couldn’t see. Matt stood up, looking around at everyone, until his eyes fell on Rin, who was sobbing, and ran over to her. Since she’d arrived, he come to think of her as a little sister. He didn’t know why, she was much too perky, but Matt had come to enjoy that.  
He had failed his sister. He couldn’t help her when she needed it the most, too wrapped up in his own problems to help her. By the time he had realized how bad it was, how much the depression and hatred and sadness and anger had eaten at her, it was too late. She disappeared before his eyes, gone before he had the chance to be the brother she needed. He was not going to fail Rin.  
He bent down next to her, trying to break through. The second that he realized that it was all in his head, he’d managed to get free. He suspected it was because his power was actually telepathic in nature-the people didn’t really lose their senses, they just thought they did-was the reason that he wasn’t held in the vision.  
He tried to hug her, make her feel that whatever was making her so sad wasn’t real, but she didn’t even react, as if she couldn’t feel it.  
In the hall  
“Over here,” Gambit lead Jean to where Rogue was. Rogue was crying a little bit, but she looked very scared.  
“Can she hear us? What’s happened?” Jean asked, not wanting to get too close to her because she looked as if she were fighting something only she could see.  
“I don’ dink so,” Gambit said, feeling sad for Rogue.  
“Mystique! Leave me alone!” Rogue shouted punching something only she saw. “You’re lyin’!”  
'Rogue was outside of the Mansion, looking at the blue skinned-red haired mutant.  
“I’m telling you the truth, Rogue. I am your mother,” she transformed into a woman who looked horrifyingly familiar.  
“Mama?” Rogue asked, taking a step back from her. “No! You are lyin’!”  
“Anna Marie-” Mystique started again.  
“That’s not mah name!” Rogue shouted at her.  
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Mystique insisted.  
“Yes, you do! If ya’ didn’t, then why did ya’ do what ya’ did on Liberty Island? Ya’ tried to kill me!” Rogue lunged at the woman, ready to attack her.  
That was where the memory ended and the nightmare began. Suddenly Mystique grew until she was a giant force to be reckoned with. She had an evil glower on her face, and she was ready for the attack. She grabbed at Rogue.  
“You are my daughter. You will be just as I am, just as wicked and cruel. But you know as well as I do that I’m not cruel. I am just fighting for my rights. And you agree with me,” she said, going closer and closer to Rogue again.  
“NO AH DON’T!” Rogue screamed, but was terrified that she was right. “Leave me alone, Mama!”'  
Gambit looked to Jean, his worry increasing. “Mystique’s her mother?” he asked.  
Jean looked confused, and closed her eyes, going into Rogue’s mind. Unfortunately, it was plagued with pyschs and echos of the people that she absorbed, making it nearly impossible to navigate. “I can’t tell what’s going on. Her mind is too...broken. It’s hard to navigate.”  
Gambit looked at the fighting girl before speaking again. “She might ’urt herself, fightin’ like that. We need to try ta get her ta stop.”  
“I’m afraid that for that to happen, we need to find out what’s causing all of this. Where are the rest of the teachers?” Jean asked. She was worried about Scott, Ororo, and Logan. If it was only affecting Rogue, well that was one thing, but something told her that it wasn’t just her.  
A sudden call for help rang out from the Living room. Jean and Gambit ran to the room, which was a sight to behold, full of students staring, fighting, and shouting at nothing. All of them had a look of terror on their faces.  
“Merde,” he whispered, looking around.  
Commercial Break  
Jean rushed over to where Matt was sitting besides Rin, who was sobbing. “What the hell is going on?” he asked, angry.  
Jean closed her eyes and dove into the girl’s mind. She saw Rin sobbing, a giant crowd of people shouting at her that she was a monster and should kill herself. Jean tried to communicate with Rin, but it was like something was blocking her. Finally she pulled out of her mind. “It seems that Rin is living her worst fear.”  
“I knew that! Until I broke free, so was I!” Matt shouted. “But why?”  
“Give me a moment,” Jean scolded, looking into the minds of each person. She didn’t like the idea of seeing something so personal, but she needed to. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she realized what the problem was. “We need to go to Danielle Moonstar. She’s in her room, and she’s upset. I don’t think that she knows what she’s doing,” she stood up, but Matt stayed in place.  
“You guys go and talk to her. I’m staying with Rin,” he said with a defensive tone.  
“Okay. Gambit?” Jean asked, looking to the Cajun.  
He debated for a moment before speaking. “I’m going to Rogue. I need to make sure dat she don’ hurt herself.”  
Jean nodded, and then dashed off to Danielle’s room.  
In Danielle’s room  
Danielle Moonstar is not a people person. Most people were afraid of her, and to be honest, she couldn’t blame them. But that didn’t stop her from getting angry at the letter that she had gotten.  
The first letter was alright, it actually was kinda heartwarming. It was from her Grandfather, telling her that she didn’t need to hide, that she could come back anytime she wanted, he would always love and accept her.  
The second was less loving.  
One of the townsfolk had gotten a hold of the letter from the mailbox-probably that was where-and added a not so friendly addition. About how it was a good riddance that she was gone, that now people didn’t have to live in fear of their worst nightmare, now the children would be safe, not growing up besides her. Her hand was shaking by the time she finished it, and after ripping it up in a fit of anger, she collapsed onto the bed to cry.  
Suddenly, there was a rushed set of knocks on the door. “Go away,” Danielle said into the bed.  
The door opened anyway, and Danielle looked up to see Jean Grey coming in. At first Danielle thought that she looked afraid of her, but upon further inspection she realized that it was worry.  
“Danielle,” Jean said softly. “What’s wrong?”  
Danielle sniffed, then looked to the remnants of the letter. “I’m an outcast, even here,” she looked at Jean, who looked a little bit distracted, then it dawned on her what happened. “Oh no. I’m doing it, aren’t I?”  
Jean nodded a little bit. “I can understand what you’re going through-”  
Danielle shook her head. “No, you can’t! You have a family here, friends. My family just told me they were glad I was gone.”  
Jean picked up the letter from her Grandfather. “I don’t think he is. It sounds like he misses you.”  
Danielle looked at the letter mournfully. “He was never afraid of me. But once my powers manifested, everyone else was. Who wants to be around a girl who can make your worst nightmares come to life?”  
Jean smiled faintly. “That’s how it was when I first discovered my powers. I even accidentally killed someone.”  
Danielle’s eyes widened. “Really? Wow, I’m sorry.”  
Jean nodded. “Yeah, me too. But the point is, I gained control, and now I have a family here. You're so afraid that they won’t accept you that you went ahead and you shut them out without even giving them a chance.”  
Danielle nodded a little bit. “I suppose that you’re right about that. I am just used to people not accepting me,” then she crossed her arms. “But now everyone’s going to be so angry at me! Any chance that I had before is gone now,” she hung her head.  
“I think that the best thing that you can do for them, and for yourself, is stop. They’ll forgive you for not being able to control it. Heck, just two days ago a student lost control of his powers and nearly killed another student. The injured student didn’t even get angry at him,” Danielle didn’t seem convinced, so Jean continued. “That same day, there was an attack on the Mansion that injured many students. Now the attacker goes to school here because we understood it wasn’t her choice. Trust me, they’ll forgive you.”  
Danielle looked up to the older girl. “Do you really think so?”  
Jean nodded. “I know so.”  
With that, Danielle breathed out, relaxing, and the terror visions stopped.  
Commercial Break  
Demons by Imagine Dragons plays until end credits  
Rogue had broken free from the vision, and the first person she saw was Gambit, looking at her, afraid. She realized that the walls around her all beaten up and broken. It was all in her head. The memory was real, though, it had happened a few days ago.  
'“Does the Professor know you’re here?” Rogue had asked when Mystique returned the next day after their fight.  
“No. I didn’t come here for him. I came to talk to you. my daughter,” Mystique had reached out to touch Rogue’s arm comfortingly, but Rogue flinched away.  
“Just because I’m not turning you in doesn’t mean ah’m accepting you as mah Mama,” Rogue warned her. “Ah just decided to hear your side of the story.”  
For the moment, that seemed good enough for Mystique.'  
Gambit and Rogue made eye contact for a few seconds before Rogue fled, running outside to the garden. How much had she said aloud? Did he know everything? That was her worst fear, Rogue realized, not that Mystique was her mother, but that people would find out about it, and say she would be just as bad.  
Rogue didn’t have it in her to cry. She wasn’t going to give Mystique that satisfaction.  
Gambit appeared a few seconds later, slowing down as he got closer. “Chère, are you alright?” he asked, but Rogue just continued to stare at the ground, not replying. “Do you wanna talk about it?” no reply. “If not, dat’s okay, too. Jus’ know dat Gambit’s here for you.”  
Finally she spoke up. “Ah’m sorry ah didn’t tell ya when ah found out that Mystique was mah Mama,” her voice sounded thick with emotion, but she didn’t cry. “Ah know ah should tell the Professor, but ah’m afraid-” she paused, catching her breath for a moment. “Ah’m afraid that he’ll think ah’ll turn out like ’er, that everyone will think that.”  
Gambit smiled, then sat next to her on the bench. “Aw, chère, you don’ need ta be afraid of dat. Gambit know dey’ll still accept you. And,” he paused for a moment before speaking again. “I know dat you won’ turn out like dat.”  
Rogue faced him, her face finally showing some traces of the emotion she was trying to hold back. He didn’t know this, but she was still lying to him. She didn’t want to tell him that she’d kept coming to the Mansion after that first day, but it felt like a weight on her chest, holding her down. “Mystique-she came back. The first day, and then again, yesterday. Ah didn’t tell anyone. Ah wanted to hear what she had to say,” despite the weight being lifted off of her shoulders by telling him that, the guilt of lying to everyone, even the Professor, who had taken her in when nobody else did, was crushing her.  
“Dat’s not your fault. She put you in a position dat no mother should. Dat’s what makes the difference between a mother, and someone who gave birth ta you,” Gambit said softly, and a tear fell down Rogue’s cheek, followed by another, and another, until she was crying. Gambit pulled her into a hug, careful not to touch any of her skin, and held her as she cried.  
Bobby walked outside then, looking for Rogue after the whole incident to talk to her. Everyone was shaken up, and it had taken him a few minutes to realize that he should be comforting Rogue, who was his girlfriend. But by the time that he found her, sobbing into Gambit’s arms, he realized that he was too late. He’d missed his chance.  
End Credits  
Promo next episode:  
Gambit’s past catches up with him, which endangers everyone. Jubilee helps Rogue and Kitty make hard decisions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N  
> Yeah, not as much of my own characters in this episode, but I figured that I'd give the other characters a chance to shine and also, I don't know what people think of them, so I'm trying to incorporate the actual real live characters. And I don't know if you've noticed it, but I'm hinting at another relationship I want to bring in.  
> OH YEAH. Almost forgot. I might change the name of this fanfiction if I can come up with a better name. Ideas?


	5. A Cajun Tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This episode's promo-  
> Gambit's past catches up with him, which endangers everyone. Jubilee helps Rogue and Kitty make hard decisions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N- First things first, this story was inspired by the amazing ARogueGambit7 's story 'Mutant High: Revolutionary'. It's an amazing story, you should go read it. Secondly, I've changed Ice Queen's code name to Aqua. It seems to fit better, and I explain why in the story. Also, I wish that I could change the actress for Rin, because I've found someone who fits my mental image better, and Danielle Campbell would play someone else who's coming. *sigh* I guess you can't have everything.  
> Also, I've started to say what the next episode's title will be at the end along with the promo. I had some free time and did this amazing thing called planning ahead. I have up until S01E011 planned out.

Season One, Episode Five  
A Cajun Tale  
In the hallway

“So I was wondering,” Bobby asked, following Rogue up to her room so she could go put her books away. “Do you want to go out tonight or tomorrow? Everything’s been so hectic lately, I’ve hardly seen you,” except for when you’re coddling some other guy, he added in his head. Bobby knew that there was probably something more to the story, but when he’d tried to ask her what she’d seen in the nightmare fiasco, she’d clammed up and said it was nothing. But if it was nothing, then why was she crying into Gambit’s arms?  
Rogue smiled at his attempt to patch up their relationship. “Maybe. Hopefully ah’ll get this homework done in time,” she pointed out, referring to the large stack of books in her arms. When they reached her door, she saw an envelope taped to the outside of it, her name written in fancy cursive.   
Rogue set her books down, picking it up and opening it. Inside it read,  
‘Rogue,  
Your presence is requested in my room at seven o’clock tonight for a relationship therapy session. Come alone. Bring sleepwear, this may take a while.  
Yours truly,   
Jubilee’  
“What is it?” Bobby asked, peeking over. Rogue folded it up and stuck it in the envelope.   
“It’s from Jubilee,” Rogue said. “She wants me ta come ta her room tonight, seven o’clock, and bring stuff for a sleepover.”  
Bobby smiled. “Is she even giving you much of an option about it?”  
Rogue shook her head. “Nah, that’s not Jubilee.”  
In New Orleans   
A blonde women stood on the side of the road, waiting for the person who’d contacted her. Something about this meeting seemed suspicious, so she had brought a few weapons. More so than usual, at least.   
“Miss Boudreaux?” someone asked from a distance.  
“Who’s askin’?” the blonde turned to face the stranger.  
“That’s not important,” the women who faced the blonde had a hood pulled over most of her face, the only thing escaping was a few locks of green hair. “I have the information you were looking for. I know where Remy LeBeau is.”  
Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons  
Wolverine: Hugh Jackman  
Rogue: Anna Paquin  
Shadowcat: Ellen Page  
Professor X: Patrick Stewart  
Gambit: Taylor Kitsch  
Jubilee: Julia Ling  
Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee  
Jean Grey: Famke Janssen  
Cyclops: James Marsden  
Storm: Halle Berry  
Iceman: Shawn Ashmore  
Colossus: Enver Gjokaj  
*Aqua (yes I changed her name shush): Danielle Campbell (young)  
*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young)   
*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse  
*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld  
Guest Starring:  
Charlize Theron as Belladonna Boudreaux  
Charles Michael Davis  
Teresa Palmer  
At the Mansion, in the Danger Room

“Bolt, on your left!” Regina aka Shatter called out to Daniel aka Bolt. Regina personally was surprised she hadn’t gotten in trouble for breaking the newly repaired windows during the nightmare scene. She told them it was an accident and she was sorry, and they didn’t get angry with her. But Regina was pretty sure that if it weren’t for the fact that she was so ‘young’, she would’ve been their enemy rather than their friend.   
A large robot came crashing down to the left of Bolt, who dived out of the way. “Thanks!” he shouted as he raised his hands to take out the electrical impulses of a different Robot and using it to electrocute another. “Ice Queen, can you slow them down?” he shouted.   
Rin nodded, shooting ice at the robot and freezing it in its place for a moment. Then she coated it in water, and encasing it in glass. “There!” she said proudly.   
Matt, aka Phantom, whose power was pretty much useless in this activity, climbed up onto the back of a different robot, distracting it as Dan and Rin destroyed the other. “Guys,” said Matt, his teeth gritted together. “Hurry it up before this thing decides I would look better as a wall decoration.”   
Rin giggled, then soaked and hardened the joints in its elbows and armpits, and knees, keeping it from moving. “There. Now get down before you get hurt,” Matt jumped down from the machine, sliding onto the ice.   
“Is that all of them?” Regina asked, looking around. As if on cue, several giant spheres started rolling in from nowhere.   
“God!” Daniel shouted. “We can’t catch a break! Shatter?” he called out.  
Regina threw her hands outwards, and after a second of concentration, they all shattered into tiny fragments. Everyone threw up their hands in protection of their faces, but most of it didn’t hit them.   
“I thought that you said last time that you were going to try to break it into as small of pieces as possible?” asked Matt, none too kindly.   
“Eres un inútil,” (you suck) Regina spat. “At least I had enough control to not break the glass Princess put around Tin Man.”  
In all truthfulness, in the heat of the moment, Regina had forgotten about trying to crush the glass into dust. But she wasn’t about to admit that. Matt was about to continue arguing, but then the holograms faded away, revealing the true nature of the Danger Room.   
“Good job,” Jean clapped from above. “You guys improved your time by thirty seconds!”   
Rin clapped with her. “Awesome!” Daniel smiled proudly, and while Regina showed hints of a smile, Matt showed no traces of emotion.   
“Terrific,” he said dryly. “Although I still have no idea why you think that we need to work as a team.”  
All four of them walked up to where Jean was watching. “Because I think you all have potential, and you will make a good team. And if you can learn to work together and control your powers, you can do a lot of good.”  
“So basically X-Men 2.0?” asked Regina slyly.   
Jean laughed a little. “If you want to call it that. But you have a lot of training to do.”   
“Hey, Miss Jean?” Rin raised her hand.  
“Yes, Rin?” Jean asked.  
“Is it maybe...possible for me to change my codename? I think that ‘Ice Queen’ doesn’t really suit my abilities. And Jubilee and I were talking, and we thought that maybe ‘Aqua’ or something like that,” Rin twirled a piece of her hair.   
Jean nodded. “Yeah, that should be fine. You haven’t gone on a real mission yet, and goodness knows that others have changed their names. Just let me know what you decide, alright?”  
“Okie-dokie!” Rin nodded.   
Commercial Break  
In Jubilee’s room  
Kitty looked at her invitation again, and then at her watch. It was exactly seven o’clock. She knocked on the door, which opened the slightest crack, just enough for Jubilee’s eye to peek through.  
“Who is it?” she asked, despite clearly seeing Kitty.   
“It’s me! Kitty!” Kitty sighed, pushing into the room, then smiled, plopping on her bed. “So, what’s up?” she asked.   
“Wait,” Jubilee stared at the door intently, and Kitty half expected it to burst into flames.  
“What for?” Kitty asked, but her question was immediately answered by knocking at the door.   
Jubilee again peeked through the crack. “Who is it?” she asked.  
“Jubilee. You can see me. It’s Rogue!” Kitty laughed at the sound of the impatient tapping of Rogue’s foot from the hall.   
Jubilee opened the door slowly. “Kitty?” Rogue asked. “She dragged you into this relationship therapy thing too? You’re not even in a relationship.”  
“Only because she is full of too many conflicted emotions! And I’m going to help,” she stated proudly.   
Rogue sighed. “Ah don’t think she’s gonna give up on this.”  
“Nope,” Jubilee smiled. “I think we should start with Rogue, shall we, Kitty?”   
Kitty smiled brightly. “This is, like, going to be totally fun!” then a look of false seriousness crossed her face. “First things first. You and Bobby?”  
Rogue chewed the inside of her lip for a moment. “Ah dunno. Everytime we try ta have a normal conversation we just end up arguin’.”  
“Do you think that it’s just, like, a normal thing?” Kitty asked.  
“Yeah. Couples argue all the time,” Jubilee pointed out.  
“That’s true, but he’s been acting really jealous lately. Like whenever I bring up Gambit, he-” Rogue paused at the looks on their face.  
“Well,” Jubilee and Kitty glanced at each other. “I can, like, see why he is.”  
“What do you mean?” Rogue narrowed her eyes.   
“Well,” Jubilee smiled. “Gambit is really hot. And he totally has a thing for you.”  
“He does not!” Rogue exclaimed. “Ah’m just another obstacle fer him. Ya know, ‘get the girl who can’t touch’,” she frowned.   
“Awww,” Kitty hugged her. “That’s not true. And I think I know what’s really going on here.”  
Rouge raised an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”  
“You’re afraid to break up with him because you think that no one else will take you,” said Kitty, with Jubilee nodding in agreement.  
“You don’t think that anyone else will want to date you because of your mutation,” Jubilee stated. “Bobby was one of the only people who was never afraid of what you could do. You feel...like you owe him.”  
“Ah do not!” Rogue crossed her arm. “He’s mah boyfriend. Ah’m not staying by him just because ah feel like ah owe him!”  
Kitty nodded. “It’s okay. But I think it would be crueller to stay with him out of a sense of duty than to break up with him and stay friends.”  
Rogue looked down. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe ah should break up with him. Truth be told, for weeks it hasn’t felt the same. It’s super tense between us all the time. Maybe...ah think that I’ll break up with him.”  
Jubilee nodded in satisfaction. “Good. One relationship taken care of. You and Bobby stay friends, a lot of drama is avoided, I think I’ve done well.”  
“So now that that’s out of the way. Let’s talk Gambit,” Kitty’s smile grew frighteningly wide, while Rogue just looked frightening.  
“What about the Cajun?” she growled.   
“He likes you. He’s not afraid of you, and he doesn’t have eyes for any girl except you,” Jubilee sighed dreamily.   
“He’s a self proclaimed ‘ladies man’,” Rogue corrected.   
“But that’s different than the way that he looks at you!” Jubilee squealed a little, but upon receiving a slightly deadly glare from Rogue, she stopped. “Alright, you know what? I think that we should move on to you Kitty.”  
Westchester, New York  
“Are you sure dat he’s here?” a dark skinned man asked the blonde woman, who nodded.   
“I have an informant who assures me dat her information is true. If not,” the blonde flipped a knife in her hand. “Well dat’s a different story.”  
“Bella, are you sure about dis? Jean-Luc won’t be happy if he finds out ’bout dis,” the dark skinned man reminded her.  
“And it’ll ruin the peace with the Guilds?” Bella sneered. “Dere shouldn’t be a peace. Remy killed Julien, he has to pay. And dey’re not going to make him, so I have to.”  
“If you say so. What ’bout da other students? Gonna kill dem all?” he asked.  
“If I have ta,” Belladonna pulled out binoculars, glancing at the Mansion in front of them. “I can see da info we need,” Bella laughed. “Dey really need ta update dere security. Dis’ll be too easy. C’mon, Gris Gris.”   
Commercial Break  
In Jubilee’s room  
“Ah went. Don’t worm out on us now,” Rogue smiled. “So, who do you ’ave a crush on?”   
Kitty mumbled something but was brushing her teeth, so it was completely unintelligible.   
“C’mon, Kitty Cat!” Jubilee smiled. “Who do you find attractive?”  
“Well, a lot of people in this Mansion are attractive,” Kitty reasoned. “Piotr’s pretty good.”  
“Oh, he’s totally got the goods for you,” Jubilee squealed.   
“He’s nice. When you were trapped in the glass he was very…” Rogue looked to Jubilee for the word.  
“Protective,” she supplied. “Like your knight in shining armor. Except for the fact that he is the armor.”  
“He’s really sweet. I think I’ll try to hang out with him more, then, like, ask him out,” but still, she looked uncertain.  
“But?” Rogue prompted.   
“But I…” her voice lowered. “Kinda have a small crush on someone else,” she muttered.  
“Who?” Jubilee asked. “You can tell us anything. Besides, that’s the entire point of tonight.”  
“Well-” Kitty was about to speak when she heard glass breaking. “What was that?”  
In Gambit’s room  
Gambit rubbed his shoulder as he entered his room. Why does Monsieur Claws always go extra hard on Gambit? What did he do to deserve this? An image of Rogue flashed across his mind and he smiled. Ah. That’s why. Suddenly the smile disappeared from his face. Something was wrong. The window was open, the curtain fluttering inwards with the wind. From here he could see that someone had used a knife to break in.   
He pulled out a pack of cards, looking around. “I know dat you’re here. Don’ bother hidin’.”  
To Gambit’s horror, a familiar blonde women stepped out with an angry smile on her face. “Well, Remy, could neva’ hide anything from you, could I?”  
“Belladonna,” he whispered to himself, then threw on his best poker face. “Remy’s surprised dat you could find him.”  
“A lot of people hate you, Remy, I’m not da only one,” Belladonna stepped closer to him, running a hand over his cheek seductively.   
“Dis ain’t dere fight. Let’s take dis somewhere else, no?” Gambit suggested, but Bella just shook her head.  
“Dis is all of dere fights. Did you really think that I came alone?” she asked him.   
“Bella, if dis is about what happened with Julien, dat was an accident. You know dat as well as I do,” Gambit insisted. However, she showed no sign of backing down, so Gambit charged a card. “Is dis da way dat it’s gonna be from now on, Bella? You try ta kill me, I send ya back to where ya came from, den you try again?”  
“If it weren’t for you, den Julien would still be alive,” she snarled, then lunged herself at him. Gambit dived out of the way, throwing the charged card at her. The explosion threw her back onto the wall, but she recovered almost instantly.   
“I didn’ know dat was gonna happen. Dat wasn’t my fault,” Bella had pulled out a knife, slashing at him.   
“I don’t care. You’re gonna pay,” she spat.  
“So be it,” Gambit replied, fighting back.  
In the hall  
Jubilee, Kitty, and Rogue stepped out into the hall to see a huge mass of panic. All of the kids were being told to go back to their rooms, with little success.   
“What’s, like, going on?” Kitty asked, but before anyone could answer, Piotr lunged at her, shoving her out of the way of Gris Gris, who had jumped out of the shadows with a knife.  
“Kitty!” he exclaimed, his skin turning to metal. “Are you okay?” he asked as he turned to face the attacker.   
“Yeah, I’m alright,” Kitty said, sounding frightened but also happy that it had been Piotr to save her.   
“Who do ya think ya are?” Rogue exclaimed at Gris Gris.   
“I’m sorry, enfants, but dis is a family matter,” said Gris Gris, his accent familiar.   
“Why does this always happen to us?” Jubilee exclaimed. “I suppose that this is the part when we fight back?” she suggested.  
As she said that, a force of water not unlike a fire hose blasted itself at him, sending him backwards in the wall. “I’m guessing that this is why he have to do all of that training?”  
Gris Gris looked like he was going to fight again, but then a look of panic crossed his face. “What the hell?” he shouted, his voice sounding louder and stranger than usual.   
Matt walked in, a hand raised. “What did ya do ta him?” Rogue asked curiously.   
He looked at her as if it were obvious. “I took away his senses. Who is the jerk?”   
“I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure that he’s a bad guy, because he tried to kill Kitty. So I got him,” Rin smiled. “I feel so thrilled!”  
There was a quiet, wicked sounding laughter, but when Matt looked around, he couldn’t see anyone. Shrugging it off, he turned back to the rest of the group. “So we caught the bad guy. Now what do we do? Throw him in a river? Take away his senses forever?” Matt figured it was only a fair punishment, but the stares he was receiving told him otherwise. “What? He attacked the Mansion. He could’ve killed people. He deserves it.”  
Regina, who’d only just walked up to hear the end of the conversation, narrowed her eyes. “Does he? How do we know that he wasn’t blackmailed into doing it. There could be more to the story.”  
Matt held his hands up in defense. Regina was normally a nice enough-if incredibly sarcastic-girl, but her temper was terrifying. “It was just a suggestion. But look at him,” he pointed to Gris Gris, who was moving around, but without his senses he made little progress. “He didn’t look afraid when he was attacking. He seemed like he was enjoying it.”   
Regina began her retort, but was cut short by Rogue. “Uh, have any of y’all seen Gambit?” she asked, looking around the hall.   
Commercial Break  
In Gambit’s room  
Ready Aim Fire by Imagine Dragons plays over next few scenes  
Gambit had brought out his bo staff, swinging at Bella. In the back of his mind, he saw the sweet little girl he met as kid, not the assassin that she’d become. He managed to knock her out of the way, but not before she got a slash in, cutting his arm.   
Suddenly the door flew open, revealing Rogue in her pajamas and looking angry. “What the hell is goin’ on?” she demanded. When she saw Belladonna attacking Gambit, she realized that Gris Gris was just a distraction.   
“Get out of here, chère,” he groaned. Suddenly Bella changed direction, throwing Gambit against a wall and lunging at Rogue. They fought for a moment, Rogue holding well on her own until Bella got a headlock on her, holding her head back and a knife pressed to Rogue’s neck.  
“I remember when ya’ called me chère,” Bella spat, pressing the knife tighter to Rogue, a small bead of blood appearing. “Killin’ ya’ would be too easy. I’m gonna make ya’ feel da pain dat I felt.”  
Gambit stood up, ready to fight, but then noticed that Rogue wasn’t wearing her gloves. Suddenly Rogue grabbed at the exposed skin on Belladonna’s arm, and Bella stiffened, then collapsed as Rogue absorbed her. Rogue winced as her memories flooded into her mind. “You alright?” he asked, going closer to her, but she immediately flinched away.  
“Don’t touch me!” she exclaimed, her eyes closed. “Ah’m sorry, it’s just-ah’m not wearing mah gloves. Ah have enough voices in mah head.”   
“Danks for savin’ me,” he said as she stood up.   
“No problem…” she trailed off, then looked at him. “Ah see dat you and ’er go way back,” Rogue had picked up traces of Bella’s accent.  
He sighed as if he were afraid of this. “Yeah. Back when I lived with my...family, we were best friends.”  
Rogue nodded. “Ya were in da Thieves Guild,” she recalled. “She was in da Assassins Guild. Ya were enemies, but den dey decided to wed you. ’Cept her brother...Julien, he didn’t like dat. You fought, and den da knife exploded, killin’ him,” Rogue tapped the side of her head. “It’s all in dere.”  
Gambit nodded. “Gambit don’ forgive himself for killin’ Bella’s brother, dey were best friends. But even Gambit knows it was an accident, even if Bella won’ see it.”  
Rogue bit her lip, looking at the unconscious blonde then to Gambit. “It wasn’ your fault, Remy,” he seemed shocked that she knew his real name, and Rogue was shocked that she said it, but it just seemed natural. Probably part of absorbing Belladonna. “Now, let’s take her to the Professor to see what to do with her?” Rogue suggested.  
Gambit nodded, surprised that she wasn’t looking at him with disgust that he had killed someone, but then again, out of everyone, Rogue would understand the most about hurting people when your power first surfaced.   
The next day, in the courtyard  
The Scientist by Coldplay plays until end credits  
Apparently both the Bella and Gris Gris had escaped, but that wasn’t what was worrying Rogue. She looked at Bobby from afar, then marched herself over, sitting next to him.  
Bobby and Rogue sat awkwardly next to each other for a moment before Rogue said what she had promised herself she would. “Bobby, ah think we should break up.”  
This seemed to shock him, certainly more than Rogue thought he would. “What? Why? Is it something I did?” he asked.  
Rogue shook her head. “No. Ah feel like we’ve been growing distant over the months-”  
“We’ve just been hitting a rough spot,” said Bobby. “I’m sure that we can fix it.”  
Again Rogue shook her head. “It’s more than a rough spot. Ah’m afraid that if we don’t admit this now, we’re gonna end up more hurt, and ah want to stay yer friend.”  
Bobby looked down. “I-I guess I can understand. But Rogue-” he looked up at her. “Is this because of Gambit? Are you breaking up with me to be with him?”  
“No. Gambit has nothin’ ta do with this,” she hesitated before saying what was on her mind. “For a while ah was afraid to admit that ah thought we were growin’ distant because ah thought that no one else would ’ave me. But then ah realized it was cruel to only stay with you because of that.”  
Bobby sighed. “I’ll always love you,” he admitted. “But you’re right, that’s more of a brother/sister relationship this time.”  
“Same here. Friends?” Rogue extended a gloved hand.  
“Friends,” he agreed, shaking it.  
Across the courtyard, Kitty was sitting awkwardly besides Piotr. “Hey, would you, uh, like to go out sometime?”  
Piotr’s eyes widened, and smiled. “Sure. I would enjoy to spend time with you.”  
It was hard to tell who looked happier.  
End Credits  
Promo for next episode:  
‘Trying to Fix What’s Not Broken’  
A sickness sweeps through the Mansion, and while the Professor is trying to find a cure, Matt discovers a possibly dangerous secret.


	6. Trying to Fix What's Not Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sickness sweeps through the Mansion, and while the Professor is trying to find a cure, Matt discovers a possibly dangerous secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:   
> As always, this story is based inspired by the amazing ARogueGambit7 's story, 'Mutant High: Revolutionary '. Go read it, it's awesome.   
> OHOHOH BEFORE I FORGET  
> A few chapters back I did an episode with Danielle Moonstar who, yes, is a real Marvel character. But I did change her powers just a tad bit by saying that she couldn't get into someones head if they were a telepath. Meaning that's why she couldn't get into Jean's mind, and Matt's power is actually telepathic in nature. As for Gambit, he has shields that protect him from this stuff.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Season One, Episode Six~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
~~~~~~~~~~Trying to Fix What’s Not Broken~~~~~~~~~  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Orange Beach, Alabama~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
“So how is Xavier’s?” Rin’s mother asked sweetly. The Professor had let her go to visit her parents for the weekend, and they had taken her out to dinner the night before and were taking her out again right before the Jean and Scott came to pick her up again.   
“You’ve already asked me that about twenty times!” Rin smiled sheepishly. “I love it there. I’ve told you about Jubilee?”   
Her father nods. “Yes, she’s the one that is a firecracker in every sense of the word, right?”  
Rin nods. “Yes! Well, she’s awesome, we’re hanging out a lot, and she introduced me to others when I first got there.”  
“And they’re all welcoming?” Mrs. Conair checked. “I know that you said that they were in your letter, but I just want to be sure.”  
Rin smiled at their protectiveness, and at the fact that she could hear them getting a little bit of an accent like Rogue’s. “They are. There’s this one kid, Matt, who’s like a brother to me, and he’s super-”  
“Madison! Joseph!” an important looking man smiled. Rin supposed he looked a little bit familiar, but she couldn’t place it. “It’s been ages! How are you guys?” he slid in next to Rin’s mother.   
“Good! We’re just catching up with Princess. Nathaniel, this is our daughter,” Mrs. Conair introduced. “We’re having dinner with her before she goes back to boarding school. She goes-” Mr. Conair sent her a sharp warning look about not saying the location after the whole ordeal with Mystique. “To this place in New York,” she continued smoothly. “It’s fantastic.”  
“Glad to hear it!” Nathaniel smiled, which seemed nice enough, but hiding in the back there was something...sinister about it. “I used to go to a boarding school when I was a kid, and I loved it.”  
“Really?” asked Mr. Conair. “I don’t remember you telling me that. Where did you go?”  
“Just some place in Michigan, I can’t even remember the name of it now,” he smiled that smile again.  
“So, Nate, what brings you to Alabama? We haven’t seen you since before the move,” Mrs. Conair asked, and Rin took a gulp of her soda, figuring that this was going to take a while and interested in hearing any stories that their parent’s friend had to tell.  
Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons  
Wolverine: Hugh Jackman  
Rogue: Anna Paquin  
Shadowcat: Ellen Page  
Professor X: Patrick Stewart  
Gambit: Taylor Kitsch  
Jubilee: Julia Ling  
Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee  
Jean Grey: Famke Janssen  
Cyclops: James Marsden  
Storm: Halle Berry  
Iceman: Shawn Ashmore  
Colossus: Enver Gjokaj  
*Aqua: Danielle Campbell (young)  
*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young)   
*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse  
*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld  
Guest Starring:  
Jason Isaacs  
*Jeffrey Dean Morgan  
*Paige Turco  
*MacKenzie Foy  
and  
Kelsey Grammer as Beast  
Rebecca Romijn as Mystique  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~At the Mansion~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
“So how was your trip?” Jubilee asked as Rin unpacked.   
“It was good. Really tiring though, we did something every day!” Rin smiled. “But I think that I’ll take a nap. I feel like I’m about to drop dead.”  
“I can’t blame you. Three hours on a jet with Scott will do that to anyone,” Jubilee giggled.   
“So what did I miss? Anything exciting?” Rin sat on top of her suitcase.   
“Well, Bobby and Rogue broke up, but that happened before you left. But the weird thing is, they’re not even awkward about it!” Jubilee gushed.  
Rin felt nauseous. “Well I guess that’s a sign that they were destined to be friends, not lovers.”  
“You're right about that,” Jubilee looked at Rin strangely. “Do you feel okay? You look like you’re gonna puke. And if you do, try to make it to the toilet.”   
Rin nodded, then dashed to the bathroom as quick as her legs would take her. Jubilee could hear vicious coughing coming from the room, so she stepped in the bathroom to see if maybe Rin needed her hair held back or something.  
Instead, Rin wasn’t just throwing up into the toilet. She was coughing up blood. Deep, red blood. Jubilee recoiled at first, then ran out of the Professor, or Hank. “Help!” she screamed, running through the halls. Lucky for both her and Rin, the first person who she ran into was Dr. McCoy himself.  
“Jubilee, whatever is the matter?” he asked, placing a large furry hand on her shoulder.   
“It’s Rin! She’s sick, and she’s in my bathroom-” Jubilee closed her eyes for a second. “Oh, God, she’s coughing up blood!” she said in a hushed whisper of sorts, for the first time not liking all attention on her.  
Hank became immediately alert. “Lead the way,” he ordered.  
Jubilee lead him to her room, and was worried when she didn’t hear Rin’s coughing. She cautiously made her way into the bathroom, where Rin was lying on the ground, shaking, with her mouth bright red. “My God,” Hank whispered, then pulled a pair of gloves on and felt her forehead. “She’s burning up. Jubilee, can you tell Miss Grey to prep the Med Lab?”  
Jubilee nodded, dashing to the Med Lab.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Commercial Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~At the Mansion~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
The entire Mansion was gossiping about what happened with Rin. Nobody knew what had happened, and Jubilee was moved to Kitty’s room so she wouldn’t get sick.   
When Matt got out of a Danger Room session with Daniel and Regina, it wasn’t pretty.   
“I thought Rin was supposed to be back by now,” Matt commented nonchalantly.   
Kitty, who happened to be walking by, stopped short and turned to face him, a ghastly expression on her face. “You didn’t hear?”  
“Didn’t hear what?” he growled, his voice terrifying. Kitty shrunk back a little bit.   
“She-she came back earlier, but now-” Kitty paused, looking at her feet. “She, like, she started coughing up blood. But Dr. McCoy and the Professor, like, don’t know what’s wrong with her. She collapsed and, like, has a fever. From what Jubes told me.”  
Matt had an expression of horror on his face for a moment before he marched towards the Med Lab. “Where are you going?” Kitty called.  
“To see Rin,” Matt growled.   
“The Professor won’t let anyone in there, he doesn’t want anyone else to, like, get sick,” Kitty warned, but Matt didn’t even slow down.  
“Do I look like I care?” he spat as he continued down. After everything that happened, all of his protecting Rin like a sister despite all of his instincts telling him not to, this happened. They didn’t know what was wrong with her. She could have Cancer, or some other stupid disease, but they didn’t know.   
Just as he approached the Med Lab, he saw Dr. McCoy shutting the door, with Jubilee inside, laying on a table, her skin translucent. So the sickness was spreading. But that wouldn’t stop Matt from making sure that she was okay. He stormed towards the door and was about to barge in when the Professor stopped him.  
“Matt, I’m afraid that for the safety of you and others, I’m going to have to tell you not to go in there,” his voice was calm and understanding, but it just made Matt angrier.   
“You can’t tell me what to do! I told Rin I’d take care of her, and I can’t damn well do that if you won’t even let me near her!” it was true he’d told Rin that, but she didn’t know that, she’d been out from the electricity then. But that didn’t make it any less of a promise.   
Professor didn’t even flinch from Matt’s swearing. “I’m sorry, Matt, but-” before he could continue, Jean rushed in, Bobby floating in front of her from her telekinesis.   
“Professor!” Jean exclaimed. “I think that this spreads through physical contact. Don’t touch them, and tell Hank not to, either.”  
“Of course,” he nodded, wheeling in behind the redhead and Bobby. “I’m sorry, Matt.”  
Matt couldn’t even open his mouth to reply, he was already inside. He considered storming in anyway, but something-or someone-stopped him.  
“Your declarations of love-however familial-to the perky girl really are entertaining,” it was a coldish voice, sounding amused, but also familiar.   
“Who are you?” Matt looked around. “Where are you?” he didn’t see anyone, just a bit of a shadow.   
“Not telling,” they taunted. Definately a girl’s voice. “But I have something you waaaaaant,” she sang in an infuriatingly annoying voice.   
Matt raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms. “And tell me, what do I want? Because clearly a random little bit-”  
“Language” she interrupted coldly. “Don’t disrespect me. You want to make sure that the super perky girl who you couldn’t be bothered with before she became the living metaphor of second chances is okay. Not that you seeing her would do anything, except maybe make you feel better. My guess is that now this is starting to be less than genuine care and more not liking to be bossed around, especially by bald guys.”  
Matt wanted to hit the girl, but considering that he couldn’t see her, he didn’t do anything more threatening than clench his fists. “How would you know? I’ve never heard you before in my life.”  
“Glad to see that you're a preceptionate. God, Ping, you’re already making me regret my decisions and we haven’t been talking five minutes,” she spat, and he could almost hear her eyes rolling.  
“Do you have something to offer me or not? Because going to talk to the Professor is seeming really tempting-” Matt reminded her.   
“I’d like to see you try to turn me in. I doubt you would get very far when you’re dead,” her voice sent chills down his spin. “I can go in and check on the perky girl for you. But I’m not going to do it for free.”  
“What do you want?” asked Matt.   
“You’re never to tell anyone of our conversation. You never met me. Never heard me. And should I contact you again, you tell no one,” her voice lowered an octave. “And if you do, believe me, you will regret it. You will regret it as your skin dies in front of you, as you rot.”   
The girl sounded serious, so Matt nodded. “Okay. Now go.”  
“Don’t boss me around!” she shouted, and then the voice and shadow was gone.   
Matt stood there for a moment, waiting. He realized that this...person could be a threat to the Mansion, trying to kill everyone. But if she was, why reveal herself like that? Matt shook his head. There was no use solving that mystery, not when there was so much else going on. Still, that girl made him want to tear his hair out, or her hair out, but there was something intriguing about her.   
Suddenly he heard someone clearing their throat, but no one was there. “I take it that you found out?” he said to nowhere in particular. “How is she?”  
“From what I could tell, it seemed that she’s quite literally falling apart. She’s coughing up blood because her lungs are worn down. She’s unconscious and from what I got of the conversation, she hasn’t woken up once, but she’s a little delirious. Since they have no idea what’s wrong with her, I would start planning her funeral now,” the girl said bluntly.   
“Nice of you to sugar coat it,” said Matt sarcastically.  
“If you wanted me to sugar coat it, you should’ve said so. Even then I wouldn’t’ve, but I’d know that the person I’d reached out to was an marshmallow,” she spat. “Anyway, you have fun crying, I have better people to spy on. God, I forgot what it was like to be free,” the shadow started to fade.  
“Wait-who the hell are you?” Matt asked.   
“Like I’m telling you. Just call me Shadow,” was all he caught before she disappeared.   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Commercial Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In the Med Lab~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Jean stood next to Scott, waiting for Dr. McCoy to get their results back from the tests that he took. Since they’d both been near and probably touched Rin, he wanted to make sure that they didn’t catch whatever she had. He could assume that it spread on skin to skin contact, so he told them to avoid touching anyone until he’d sorted everything out.  
“Not a normal day in the Mansion, huh?” she laughed.   
He nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Although I don’t think we’ve ever had a constructive week without some mishap or emergency.”  
“When we do, we should celebrate it. Go out to dinner, do something special,” she suggested. They’d been unofficially going out for the past few months, so they were certainly more comfortable with each other. Now Jean couldn’t imagine life without him.   
“Definately. But when we do, the Mansion will probably be under attack again,” he joked as Dr. McCoy walked in, looking grim.   
“What is it, Hank?” Jean asked, worried. Did one of them have it?  
“I’m afraid that I discovered a few things while running the test on your blood samples,” he said in a grave voice. “While I did learn quite a bit about the disease itself, I’m afraid to say that Scott looks like his blood is mutating. He has the disease.”  
Both Jean and Scott gasped in harmony, which would’ve in any other situation be comical. “What can we do?” Jean asked.  
“Since we caught it before the symptoms showed, we have a little more time to discover what causes it,” Hank said. “From what I gathered, we were right to say that it spread through skin to skin contact. But it seems like if anyone gets close enough to breath on another, then that’ll spread it, too. Our best option would be to separate everyone, make sure that it doesn’t spread. It’s highly unstable, and I am afraid that it could mutate at any given time, if it infects the right person.”   
Jean nodded in agreement. “Definately. Scott, how do you feel?” she asked.   
“I feel a little run down, but I don’t feel terrible. At least not right now,”he shrugged his shoulders.   
“Well I suggest that you sit down right now, no need to advance the virus anymore than it already is,” Hank said, and Scott gave Jean a short little wave before going to one of the beds in the Med Lab.  
“Will he be alright?” Jean asked as soon as he was out of earshot.   
“It’s hard to say. Miss Rin isn’t doing very well, and neither is Miss Jubilee. It seems that Mr. Bobby is heading down the same road. My guess is that we’ll need to find the cure for whatever this disease is soon,” Hank suggested.  
“Well, that would require us knowing what it is. Do you have any clues on that? It doesn’t seem natural to me,” Jean pointed out, when suddenly there was a large shattering sound from the room next door. “That doesn’t sound good.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In the main room~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   
The number of people wandering around in the Mansion was quickly dwindling. Rin, Jubilee, Bobby, Scott, and as of two minutes ago Daniel all had the disease. Storm told them to avoid any skin to skin contact, any contact at all, really, which caused Rogue to chuckle darkly under her breath.   
Kitty sat alone on a recliner, with Piotr watching her from the nearby chair. Kurt stared off into cyberspace from a rocking chair, his tail wrapped along the handle. Rogue and Gambit sat on a couch together, except a couch cushion between them. Nobody really spoke much, aside from Gambit, who seemed determined to fill up the blank space. Now that Rogue was single, and there weren’t as many secrets between them thanks to the angry ex-girlfriend thing, he’d tried even harder to win her over.   
Although Rogue would never admit it, she was starting to consider him a good friend, but she didn’t want to get together with him. Well, maybe she did. Maybe she didn’t. There were too many things going on right now for her to focus on her social life, and even so, she would never betray Bobby like that by getting together with someone else a week after breaking up with him, and while he was in the hospital. That’s a whole new level of coldhearted.   
“So, chère,” Gambit started again. “After dis, do ya wanna go get somethin’ ta eat? Gambit heard of a real nice place downtown.”  
Rogue half glared at him. “Not now, Cajun.”   
“Why? ’fraid dat Gambit’ll distract ya from your brooding?” he smirked.  
“Ah ain’t brooding,” Rogue frowned.   
“Can you guys, like, be quiet? My head hurts and I feel like I’m gonna-” suddenly she leaned over the edge of her recliner and threw up blood. She kept coughing, and everyone leaped up from their seats, staring at her. Rogue started forward as if to help, but Piotr beat her to it, turning his skin to metal and picking her up.  
“Piotr, don’t touch me,” Kitty mumbled, her eyes rolling back.   
“Do not worry, Kitty. Technically, my skin is not touching you,” he said as he ran her to the Med Lab.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In the Med Lab~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
When Jean and Hank walked into the Med Lab, they didn’t see anyone. The glass was just...broken. Upon further inspection, Jean realized that Hank’s water bottle was frozen. “Uh, Hank, I think that you should see this,” he walked over to where Jean was standing. “I think that I’ve found out something new about this virus.”  
“It’s causing their mutations to go out of control!” Hank exclaimed, studying the water bottle further. “I wonder…” he trailed off, then went to look at a sample of Rin’s blood. “Aha. I think that this virus isn’t an accidental thing. It seems to be man made, more particularly targeted at mutations.”  
“Do you think that someone was trying to enhance Rin’s powers?” Jean asked, looking at the unconscious girl.   
“Perhaps, but maybe it was supposed to be used to cure her, and it didn’t go as plans. But if it’s targeted specifically at mutations, then that doesn’t only explain why it’s affecting them the way is, but it means that it has probably already mutated,” Hank explained.   
“What do you mean?” Jean asked, studying the students vital signs.  
“I mean that at first it could only transfer by consumption of the drug, but then when Rin got it, it mutated through her mutation, being spread through bodily fluids-”  
“Like sweat!” Jean finished, understanding at last. “Skin to skin contact. The reason that it hasn’t further mutated is because nobody else’s mutation provided a way for it to travel.”  
Suddenly Piotr burst in, his skin steel and carrying Kitty. “Oh no,” Jean sighed, clearing another bed. “Piotr, set her here. Then go take a shower or something. I know that your skin is steel, so you should be safe, but I just want to be sure.”  
Piotr looked hesitant to go, staring at Kitty. “Is she-?”  
“The best thing you can do for her is not get sick. We think we know what’s causing it, so we’re one step closer to creating an antidote,” Hank replied.   
Piotr nodded. “Okay. Thank you,” he added before leaving the Med Lab.   
Jean put on a pair of rubber gloves, then attached an IV to her. “Hank, I think we should take a blood sample from Kitty. With her mutation, this virus could become airborne.”  
“Well, let’s pray to God that it doesn’t,” Hank said gravelly.   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Commercial Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In Storm’s Office~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Ororo rubbed her temples, sitting at her desk while she was supposed to be grading papers. She knew that no matter what else was going on, she still needed to stay strong, keep doing what she does. But so many of the students were sick, and now she heard that Scott, one of her oldest friends, was sick with it too, the virus finally showing its symptoms.   
A soft knock at her door interrupted her thoughts. “Come in,” she said, looking up.  
It was Jean. Her normally perfect hair was a mess, and she looked like she hadn’t slept in ages. “Hey,” Jean said softly.  
“Hello. What is the matter?” Ororo asked, standing up. “Are you alright?”  
Jean nodded, but looked down as if she were about to cry. “I’m just worried about Scott. We found out that this virus wasn’t accidental, somebody purposely gave it to Rin, where it mutated. We have no idea how to stop it, but we still have to try.”  
“You have every right to be worried, but trust me, Jean, things will get better. They always do,” Ororo promised.   
“I know that they do, but how can we know that this isn’t the one time that they don’t? Our luck is bound to run out sometime,” Jean’s eyes welled up, and she began to actually cry.  
“Oh, Jean,” ignoring her own suggestion of avoiding any physical contact, she hugged her best friend tightly. “I can promise you, he will make it through this.”  
“And the other students? Hank said that Rin might not last more than three days. She’s not getting any nutrients,” Jean pulled away from Ororo. “I can only imagine how it would feel for Matt if she died. He’s only just begun to come out of shell, and he really cares for her. And she’s Jubilee’s best friend. Not to mention that she’s just a wonderful girl, and all of this…” Jean exhaled. “It’s just awful.”  
Ororo nodded in agreement with what Jean said. “True. Did you say that you think that Rin was poisoned?”  
Jean nodded. “Yes. Well, not with the intention of poisoning her. Hank thinks that someone was trying to enhance her powers, or maybe remove them. Whatever the intentions were, that’s not what happened. He says that it didn’t have the desired effect and then it mutated, spreading through physical contact. Now that Kitty has it we’re afraid it will be able to mutate and become airborne, because it targets mutations.”  
“It could become airborne? Should we warn the students?” Ororo asked.  
“No. I don’t want to worry them further, and there’s nothing else that we can do,” Jean stated.   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Outside the Professor’s office~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Matt decided to ask the Professor again if could see Rin. Shadow had told him some pretty terrifying news, and he also wanted to go see if he could figure out anything about Shadow herself. The girl seemed like she could be a big problem, especially since she didn’t seem to care about hurting anyone, which definitely went against the morals of the X-Men.  
As he stopped outside the door, he heard the Professor talking to someone on the phone. “Yes, I know it has been a long time...Erik, you’re not listening to me...yes….you haven’t? Are you sure?...Alright...I’m not...half of the students...yes. I am afraid that Caterina has caught it...no!...Erik, I am not being stubborn. It’s for the safety of herself and others...we’re not having this conversation again! She’s safer here...Erik-....I am not locking her away. Goodbye,” the Professor hung up the phone, and Matt could hear the sigh through the door.   
Caterina? Was that Shadow’s real name? No...the Professor would never allow someone as dangerous as her in. Then again, he had allowed Rogue here, and she could kill someone with just a touch. But that’s the difference between Rogue and Shadow. Rogue would never intentionally use her powers to hurt someone. Shadow made it clear that she not only would, but she would enjoy doing it.   
Matt stepped away from the door, only to bump into Logan, who growled, “Watch it, kid,” before stalking past him.  
“Arse,” he muttered after he was well out of Logan’s earshot.   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In the main room~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Rogue, Gambit, Kurt, and Piotr were the only ones left. Amara had recently gotten sick, and had to be taken to the Med Lab. They tried to make conversation, filling in the blanks. “So...da weathers nice, no?” Gambit asked, looking out the window into the blue skies.  
“I think zat is Storm’s doing,” Kurt commented.   
“I agree, she has always seemed to know how to try to put a positive spin on things,” Piotr said, then frowned, looking out the window, where a posh blue car pulled up to the school. Through the window you could see a certain blue skinned red haired mutant. “Is that Mystique?” he asked, and everyone stood up, Kurt going to look in the window but Gambit and Rogue hanging behind.  
“The only person ah’ve told is the Professor,” Rogue whispered to him.   
“It’s okay, chère,” Gambit whispered in return. Then he looked closer at Rogue, who was looking paler than usual, aside from the bright red on her cheeks. “Are you okay?”  
Rogue nodded. “Ah’m fine, ah just feel a little…” suddenly her eyes rolled up to the back of her head, and she collapsed forward. She would’ve hit the floor hard, but Gambit caught her.   
“Do not touch her, my friend!” Piotr exclaimed, but it was too late. Gambit was holding an unconscious Rogue in his arms bridal style, her head lolling back.   
“Rogue!” Gambit looked down on her fluttering eyelids. “Chère, can you hear me?” there was no response.  
“Gambit, take her to the Med Lab,” the Professor ordered as he went past them to stop Mystique at the door.  
Gambit obliged, trying to see if he could wake her up on the way. “Chère,” he said again. “Just wake up,” he pleaded. Remy Lebeau never, ever pleaded. He always just got what he wanted. But with this, he didn’t know how to do that.   
As he approached the Med Lab, Jean opened the doors for him. Apparently he’d been projecting his thoughts rather loudly. “Bring her in here,” she ordered, her worst fears confirmed. If Rogue got it, of all people, then it had most certainly become airborne.   
Almost the second that Gambit laid her down, Rogue turned on her side, convulsing and coughing up blood. “Merde,” Gambit whispered as he looked around the room. Rin, Jubilee, Kitty, Bobby, Daniel, Regina, Amara, and Scott were all lying on beds, pale and sickly. There was lots of coughing and moaning, mostly general discomfort. Rin was by far the palest of them all, her skin sunken in and pale, with a sickly hue to it. Her breath was rattley, as if something had crawled into her lungs and died.   
“You should go now,” Jean suggested, looking like she hadn’t slept in days. “You don’t want to get sick.”  
“Well, won’t you get sick if you stay here?” Gambit asked, his eyes drifting over to where Rogue was lying.   
“I would’ve already gotten sick by now. Hank ran some tests, he thinks that he and I were fortunate enough to be immune to it. He’s currently trying to conduct an experiment on our blood to create a cure,” Jean explained. “Although, you, Kurt, and Piotr might be immune, too. Since Kitty was infected it has gone airborne, so you would’ve gotten in by now.”  
Gambit nodded, but it made sense. “Den, if you don’ mind, I’d like to stay here.”  
Jean’s expression softened, and she nodded. “Of course,” it was clear to her, telepath or not, that he had feelings for her. She didn’t say anything of that sort, just stepped to the side to examine some of the other students. Just as Gambit sat down besides Rogue, Logan came bursting in.  
“Kid!” He exclaimed as he saw her unconscious form lying on a bed, an IV hooked up to her.   
“She just caught it today, Logan,” Jean stepped closer to him in hopes of calming him down. “It’s become airborne.”  
Of course nobody had to worry about Logan getting it, he was immune to practically anything, and his healing factor would take care of anything that he wasn’t. A similar thought seemed to have run through his mind. “Let her absorb my healing factor,” he said, although it sounded more like an order.  
“I’m afraid that that won’t work, Logan,” Jean started, only to be immediately interrupted by Gambit.  
“Why da hell not?” Gambit asked, standing up.   
“What’s Gumbo doing here?” Logan growled, sending his best death glare Gambit’s way.  
Jean sighed in exasperation at the two boys. Even if Logan was older than her, he still acted like a boy. “Because he, like you, me, Hank, and most likely the few students who haven’t gotten sick yet, is immune to the virus. Like I was saying, the reason that her absorbing your healing factor won’t work is because this disease is targeting the mutated cells, causing them to go out of control. She would either kill you in an instant or it wouldn’t work at all, and there’s no way to tell which it would be.”  
Logan stared at Rogue for a few moments before turning back to Jean. “Fine. How long is Doc away from finding a cure?”  
Jean shrugged. “I’m afraid I don’t know. The best that we can hope for is for them to last until then.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Commercial Break~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Outside the Mansion~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
“Are the rumors true?” Mystique demanded, not wanting to waste time. “Is there a fatal disease running through the Mansion?” she knew that Erik would never lie to her, but she wanted to be positive.  
The Professor sighed. “I am afraid so. But I simply cannot let you in, it’s for both your safety and that of the students.”  
Mystique quickly grew angry. “Charles, my daughter is in there! You know that. Let me get her out of there before your stubbornness kills her!”

Charles looked down, not wanting to meet her eyes. “Tell me then, Raven-”  
“It’s Mystique,” she hissed.   
“If you care for her so much, why have you never come to her and told her who you were before? Why now?” Charles continued.   
“Are you saying that I am only after her power?” Mystique accused. “I just want what’s best for her. For us!”  
“I am sorry, Mystique, but I can’t let you see her. She has already fallen ill, and I don’t want you to get sick and infect the rest of the mutant population,” Charles said.  
“You can’t keep her from me!” Mystique growled. “I have every right to-”  
“Actually, you have no right. Until Rogue decides to leave of her own freewill, she is under my care and my protection,” Charles proclaimed, finally showing his annoyance at Mystique.  
Mystique looked like she was going to say more, but was interrupted by Logan, who’d stepped out to see what all of the commotion was. “What’s Smurfette doing here?”  
Mystique narrowed her eyes at him, but then went to her car. She was far too busy to engage in a fight with Wolverine. “I will get her back,” she promised. “You can’t keep her from me forever!” she said before driving away.  
“What was that all about?” Logan asked.   
“I’m afraid that Mystique is growing into her ‘motherly instincts’, but not at all for the right reasons,” the Professor explained.  
“Is Mystique really Rogue’s mother?” he asked, having heard some of the conversation from inside.   
The Professor nodded gravelly.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In the Med Lab~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Jean had finished checking over Regina again and was moving onto Daniel, who kept causing the power in the Med Lab to fluctuate. His tempature, like everyone else in the room’s, was an astounding 106 degrees fahrenheit. ((41 degrees celsius.)) Jean could only imagine what it felt like. A few of the students were muttering under their breaths, like Regina, who kept switching to Spanish now and again.  
Jean had tried her hardest to keep the room clean, but so many of the students kept coughing up blood, sweating, it was disgusting, and it kept the room from being anywhere near clean.   
Suddenly, one of the heart monitors began to go crazy, alerting Jean that something was wrong. Rushing over, she saw it was Rin, who had begun convulsing violently, her skin stretched tight over her bones. Jean knew that being the original receiver of this disease, she would be the first to show it’s final effects. Jean glanced for a millisecond at Scott before calling out for Hank.  
“Hank! We’re losing Rin. Do you have an antidote yet?” she called over into his office from besides Rin.  
Hank rushed out, holding a needle. “I have yet to test it, but this is from our antibodies and Logan’s. Hopefully it will work, but at this point I don’t think we have anything to lose,” he carefully injected the serum into Rin’s arm, and the machine slowed down, her heartbeat returning to normal.  
Both Jean and Hank sighed in relief. The cure worked. “Do you have anymore ready?” Jean asked.  
Hank nodded, heading over to his office. “I have three doses ready. I can make more quickly.”  
“Perfect,” Jean smiled, looking over at Scott. “Perfect.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~Stay With Me by Sam Smith plays until end credits~~~~~~~~~  
One by one, everyone of the students had the cure, and woke up. Some, like Rin and Jubilee, had to stay in the Med Lab for a few days to get a check up and make sure that they got back of of the nutrience they lost. Others, like Amara and Rogue, were given a brief check up before told that they were told that they could go.  
Rogue was a little out of it as she exited the Med Lab. She had had weird dreams while she was out, some of them old memories that she didn’t even know that she had, and some of what she figured wasn’t even a dream, but hearing what they were talking about. She saw Logan almost instantly, waiting for her outside.  
“How are you kid?” he asked, but Rogue didn’t reply immediately.   
She looked past him out the window to see Mystique standing outside. “Is that...is that Mystique?”   
Logan sniffed the air, then followed Rogue’s gaze. “What’s she doing back here?” he asked to no one in particular.  
“Back here?” Rogue clarified. “When was she here the first time?”   
Logan walked to the main room, where he knew that the Professor was talking to Regina about the previous day’s events. “Chuck, what’s going on? Why is she here?”  
“When was she here the first time?” Rogue repeated.  
“Yesterday Mystique showed up here, demanding to see you,” the Professor explained.   
Logan looked a little uncomfortable. “You didn’t tell me that she was your mother.”  
“Ah-how did ya find out?” Rogue demanded, angry that not only nobody had told her that Mystique had come to see her, but the fact that Logan was, as much as he try to hide it, looking at her the way that she was afraid people would.  
“She told us. Rogue, you shouldn’t be talking to her, she’s-” Logan started, but Rogue interrupted.  
“You’re not my father!” Rogue burst out. Right now, she only wanted one thing, one thing that she hadn’t had in a long time-she wanted her mother.  
Turning around, she stormed out of the Mansion towards where Mystique was. She was tired of being an X-Men, tired of always getting attacked but not being able to fight back, of being ashamed of a relation that she couldn’t help, of saying that they were going to make a difference, but never actually being able to do the dirty work to make it happen. Even if it was a rash decision made in the heat of the moment, Rogue knew what she was going to do.  
She was going to join the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Back in the Mansion~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Gambit looked in the Med Lab for Rogue-Jean had sent him to get some water for the waking up patients-but she wasn’t there. He looked from room to room, but nobody had seen her. Finally he came across Logan, who looked as close to tears as he’d ever seen him, staring out the window at nothing.   
“Have you seen Rogue?” he asked Logan.   
Logan grunted for a moment, as if he sorely wanted to tell Gambit to stay away from Rogue, but finally said, “She made her choice. She’s gone.”   
Gambit looked to where Logan was, his heart sinking. She was really gone. And from the look on Logan’s face, he could tell that she wasn’t expected to come back anytime soon.   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End Credits~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Promo for next episode, ‘The Darkness Inside of Me’  
Mixed feelings run through the Mansion after Rogue’s decision, Matt learns more about Shadow, and the Mansion receives a visit from some of Logan’s old friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah. High five if you caught the little tease I put in there for one of the next villians. Also, with Rogue gone (sorry Rogue) I'll be able to work on some of the other couples in there. So for the next few chapters there will be less Romy. Sorry. Had to happen.  
> So PLEASE read and review!!! Any suggestions are welcome!


	7. The Darkness Inside of Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mixed feelings run through the Mansion after Rogue's decision, Matt learns more about Shadow, and the Mansion receives a visit from some of Logan's old friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: this story is based off of the amazing ARogueGambit7 's 'Mutant High: Revolutionary' (GO READ IT IF YOU HAVEN'T!) Also, sorry for spoiling who Logan's friends are in the title sequence, but I'm trying to maintain a pattern of if-they-have-big-roles-and-are-comic-canon-say-their-names-in-the-title-sequence. Unless I really need it to remain a secret for suspense or plot reasons (which will happen in the next episode, just so you're warned.)

~Season One, Episode Seven~  
~The Darkness Inside of Me~  
Logan had the danger room on it’s highest setting, pounding away at new robots with his unsheathed claws. Within three minutes he’d beat the course, but leaning against the wall, he didn’t feel any better than when he started.  
“You’re not my father!” Rogue’s words echoed through his head.  
“Reset training session,” Logan shouted out, pushing himself up for another round.  
Jean watched from above as Logan continued to fight. She knew that he was hurting from Rogue’s decision, they all were. But she didn’t want to see him push himself too far. Jean knew that he had had a lot of betrayal in his life, and this was just the latest of the bunch. Still, this had to hurt more than the rest-Rogue had been like a daughter to him.  
“Hey, Logan,” she called down through the intercom. Logan looked up towards her briefly before continuing his session, shouting:  
“Yeah, Red?”  
“Don’t forget, you have a training session in fifteen minutes. Try not to have the room completely destroyed,” she said with a small smile, Logan grunting in response.  
“Alright,” he replied before continuing working.  
Jean sighed. She couldn’t make herself angry at Rogue’s decision, however much she wanted to. While Rogue had left all of them for the enemy, she’d had a good reason. She wanted to be with her mother. Even if her mother was someone like Mystique, she was still her mom. And Jean could respect that. What Jean couldn’t respect was her leaving Logan like this. As far as Jean could tell, Rogue hadn’t tried to make contact with them at all. She hadn’t just left Logan, but all of her friends who had literally just gotten out of the hospital.  
~In the main room~  
Kitty sat on the couch with everyone, watching the morning news. She had completely lost track of the time when Ororo entered the room. “Kids, don’t you have a training session with Logan in ten minutes?” she reminded them.  
“Oh shit!” Bobby swore, leaping up to his feet. Everyone else soon followed, racing up to their rooms.  
Kitty walked alongside Piotr. “Hey, Piotr,” she started, and he turned to face him. “Do you want to, um, like, go out tonight?”  
He blushed furiously, but nodded. “Yeah, I would love to. Shall I pick you up at five?” he asked.  
Kitty nodded. “Yeah! That’s, like, awesome. I’ll see you then.”  
Piotr blushed again, then nodded, brushing his hand against the back of this head. “See you then.”  
Kitty disappeared into her room, changing into her Danger Room outfit, her mind buzzing with the prospect of her date with Piotr.  
Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons  
Wolverine: Hugh Jackman  
Rogue: Anna Paquin  
Shadowcat: Ellen Page  
Professor X: Patrick Stewart  
Gambit: Taylor Kitsch  
Jubilee: Julia Ling  
Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee  
Jean Grey: Famke Janssen  
Cyclops: James Marsden  
Storm: Halle Berry  
Iceman: Shawn Ashmore  
Colossus: Enver Gjokaj  
*Aqua: Danielle Campbell (young)  
*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young)  
*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse  
*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld  
Guest Starring:  
Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool  
Kelly Gould as X-23  
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury  
*Mackenzie Foy  
~In the Danger Room~  
“Glad to see that some of you finally decided to show up,” Logan started, glaring at Kitty and Jubilee, who had just arrived. In their defense, they were only one minute late, but everyone was on edge, especially Logan. “So today’s exercise is going to be simple enough. You will be split into two teams. Your mission is to kidnap players from the opposing team, and by the end of the round, whoever has the most of their own team members left wins.”  
Bobby raised an eyebrow. “So todays lesson is...kidnapping 101?”  
“No,” Logan narrowed his eyes. “Today’s lesson is about always watching your back, and watching your friend’s back. You never know what’s out there,” he looked them over. “Kitty, Gambit, Kurt, Piotr, and Matt, are the red team. The blue will be Jubilee, Daniel, Bobby, Rin, and Regina,” he began stalking towards the control center. “Begin.”  
For a moment the two teams watched each other, then both of them retreated to opposite sides of the jungle ridden Danger Room.  
Once they were out of view, the red team began planning. “Jus’ let Gambit take dem out. He’s done dis before,” he bragged.  
“Where did you do this before?” Piotr asked curiously.  
“Dat’s not important,” Gambit replied smoothly. “What’s important is that I know what to do.”  
“And that is?” Kitty prompted.  
“Dey’re goin’ to attack head on. For God’s sake, dey have Regina. Dat’s not a good idea. We need to sneak around, take them out while dey’re not payin’ attention,” he explained.  
“Oh. Alright. That, like, sounds good. Maybe Matt, Piotr and I can, like provide a distraction, and you and Kurt can teleport back and kidnap them,” Kitty suggested, and they all seemed to agree on it.  
The other team was being extremely predictable, acting exactly as Gambit had expected them to.  
“Maybe we should try and surprise them?” Jubilee suggested, but Regina shook her head.  
“They have Gambit on their team. He’d see us coming a mile away. If they know we’re coming, might as well be strong about it,” Regina argued.  
“But-” Jubilee started again, but Bobby shook his head.  
“Regina’s right-” he agreed.  
“I always am,” Regina smirked.  
“We should split into two teams. One coming from each side,” she suggested.  
“We need to take out Gambit and Piotr first, as the strongest of the group. Without them the rest of them will be lost,” Rin pointed out.  
“Alright. Bobby, can you-” Rin looked around to see that Bobby was gone. “Bobby? Where’s Bobby?”  
“He’s gone!” Regina exclaimed. “They’ve gotten ahead of us!”  
“Well, Ms. Brilliant, what do you suggest?” Daniel asked. Regina narrowed her eyebrows, advancing on him.  
“What did you just call me?” she demanded, but Jubilee stepped between them.  
“Alright, break it up. We don’t need to be getting into petty little fights when if we don’t pay attention, they’ll be robbing us from under our noses,” Jubilee reminded them.  
Kitty, Piotr, and Matt stepped out from the foliage, not at all being subtle. “This is too easy,” Matt proclaimed as he raised his hands, taking away the senses from the opposing group. “Easy peasy. We could take them all out now and call it a win.”  
Daniel, however, had managed to get an aim and shot a bolt of lightning that hit Matt, causing him to fly backwards. Instantly all of their senses returned, and blinking their eyes, they observed the surrounding area. “I got him!” he shouted, punching the air.  
“Not yet, little man,” Piotr lunged at him trying to pin him down. Daniel evaded him, leaping out of the way and raising his fists, drawing energy out from the Danger Room’s illusions, and turned into lightning that he shot at Piotr and it coursed through his metal skin.  
Meanwhile, Kitty had taken on Regina, who was looking furious. “Is that all you got?” Kitty taunted, and Regina jumped on top of her, but Kitty just phased through. Regina managed to get a grip of Kitty’s hair, however, yanking it. Kitty let out a howl true to her nickname before she phased out again.  
The third and final pair was certainly the most interesting. Matt was fighting Rin, and while he might’ve been reluctant to hurt her at first, that quickly changed when he saw the fierceness behind her expression. Not ‘I-will-pound-you-to-death’ fierce, just stronger than the little girl who was bullied at the movies. She could stand up for herself, which she showed while fighting him.  
Matt’s mind was still a little scrambled by the lightning bolt shot at him, and for the moment he couldn’t muster enough concentration to use his powers, but he had still been able to hold his own for against Rin. That was until she started doing flips to avoid him.  
“You’re a gymnast?” he asked quizzically.  
Rin just smiled brightly before launching herself from a tree to tackle him, pinning him underneath of her. Matt could’ve easily thrown her off-she was half his size-but she managed to use her power to basically seal his arms and legs to the ground with ice. Sticking her tongue out like she was six, she turned around to join the fight, only to see that it was just Regina and Jubilee. “Where’s Daniel?” Rin asked.  
Both of the girls shrugged. “Kitty and Piotr just disappeared. I think this was a set up. Where’s Matt?”  
Rin looked behind herself at Matt, who was still stuck to the ground. “Right there. He’s not going anywhere, unless Kitty phases him out of the ice. Only I can remove it.”  
“Perfect. But they still have two of us, and we only have one of them. How do we beat them? Kitty will phase out of anything that we try to catch her with, Kurt will teleport away, Piotr is ten times any of our sizes, and Gambit is, well, Gambit,” Regina counted them off on her fingers.  
“I think that our best chance would be to try to get our own members back. We can’t catch any of them,” Jubilee offered.  
“Well then,” Rin looked back at Matt again. “How are we going to do that?”  
~Commercial Break~  
~In the Control Center~  
Logan watched from above. He had to admire Gambit’s style, they never noticed when he was three inches from them. He was slightly exasperated at the fact that Rin managed to overcome Matt-good for her, bad for Matt-and decided that he’d have to teach them more on fighting someone smaller or larger than them. Logan was just about ready to pummel Drake for letting his guard down so much. It was no wonder he was the first to go.  
Suddenly he sense something was off. The air smelled the same, nothing was out of place...he just smelled himself, as usual, in the room, with traces of Jean from earlier. And...it was hidden, barely there, but the faintest traces of Fruitloops. Logan growled, looking around the room. The scent smelled familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.  
Suddenly a very familiar pair of claws attacked at him, shoving him to the ground. A girl with brown hair and two silver claws protruding from each hand had him pinned, slashing at his face. He healed instantaneously, but that didn’t help his confusion. He flipped her over, pinning her down, but a claw extended from her foot, stabbing him in the stomach and forcing him off of her.  
“It’s all-” she kicked him in the stomach again. “Your-” and again, “Fault!” she kicked him a final time, her claws extended as if she wanted to cut off his head. Luckily-or unluckily, depending on how you look at it, someone grabbed the ferocious girl from behind, pulling her away.  
“Hey! Small dark and angry! I thought we agreed that it was a bad idea to start with stabbing! That was totally plan B,” the man scolded. He was wearing a red and black suit that covered his entire body in spandex, which made Logan want to puke.  
The girl huffed, stabbing him so he let go, but he didn’t even seem phased, just watched as the hole immediately closed up. Logan meanwhile leaped to his feet, his claws extended. “What the hell is going on here?” he looked at the girl’s claws again. “And who the hell are you?”  
The girl crossed her arms, growling as if she wanted to kill him, and the man in the red suit bounced forwards, extending a hand. “HELLO! I’m Deadpool! It rhymes with no-school! To cool, ain’t no fool, and I’m the best there is at what I do-ool!” he exclaimed, mimicking Logan’s voice.  
That didn’t seem to help smooth things over with Logan. “Deadpool. Do I know ya’?” he asked.  
Deadpool shook his head energetically. “Nope! But I know you.”  
The girl groaned in exasperation, then pushed past him, her claws extended. “You’re Weapon X. He’s Weapon X 2.0, as I call it. I’m Weapon X-23. Or just X-23,” X-23 explained.  
“I call us the X-Factor!” Deadpool explained with a smile.  
That just made Logan more confused and only slightly less suspicious that they were going to try and kill him. “You guys are from the Weapon X project?”  
“God, I thought you were a teacher!” Deadpool laughed. “Of COURSE we’re from the Weapon X project! We don’t have all of these X related names because we’re your biggest fan! That’s what I have my Hugh Jackman posters for!”  
Logan raised an eyebrow at X-23, who just shrugged. “Just go with it.”  
“So, I’m assuming that you’re not going to kill me,” he said to Deadpool, who shrugged. “Not as sure about ‘small dark and angry’ here-”  
“HEY THAT’S MY NICKNAME FOR HER!” Deadpool pouted.  
“But I’m guessing that you want something,” a thought occurred to Logan. “If you guys want to team up on some mass murder thing against the Weapon X program or something, it’s not happening. I’m not a killer, and I have a pretty nice thing going here. So if that’s what you want-”  
“No!” X-23 exclaimed in an exasperated voice. “We aren’t trying to kill them! That’s just an added bonus. Since clearly Mr. Won’t-Shut-Up isn’t going to explain it, I will. S.H.I.E.L.D. is after us and we need a place to disappeare. You live in a Mansion. It’s not rocket science.”  
“Why is S.H.I.E.L.D. after you two?” Logan asked cautiously. If they killed someone, or S.H.I.E.L.D. was going to barge in here any second, he’d be in trouble, and if Logan got in trouble, these two were most certainly going to get in trouble.  
“They think that we’re dangerous,” X-23 explained. “When I escaped from Weapon X, I wasn’t exactly neat and nice about it. And I’ve heard stories about when he escaped, and that’s not pretty, either.”  
“So you killed a ton of people while escaping, which I can’t blame you for, but what do you want me to do about it? You want to stay here?” Logan was still really confused. He glanced back in the Danger Room to make sure that nobody had died, and so far it seemed more of the same, so he returned his attention to the two people in front of him. “How did you even get past the security, anyway?” Gambit had insisted on updating it himself once he saw first hand how easy it was to get past.  
“That was easy. You could still get past it, couldn’t you?” X-23 challenged, her eyes narrowed. “As for what we want, I wanted revenge. This is all your fault. But Deadpool here convinced me that you could be of help.”  
“I’m still not entirely sure that he did convince you,” Logan remarked.  
That caused X-23 to growl at him, a sight that Logan found strangely familiar. “Put the claws away, Kitten,” Deadpool chided.  
“So what do you two want?” Logan asked.  
~In the Danger Room~  
“This isn’t working,” Jubilee groaned as they trudged back to their hiding spot. Their plan of attack had failed miserably, and not only had they not gotten Bobby or Daniel back, but Rin had almost gotten captured, too. By Gambit none the less, which confirmed what they already knew-that Gambit was taking them out when they wouldn’t notice it. The only reason Rin got away was that she had shot a blast of water at him with the force of a fire hose, sending him flying backwards.  
“Is Matt at least still there? Or did we lose our one and only prisoner?” Regina grumbled.  
Matt was still there, but then Regina froze, listening, and lunged at something in the shadows. Catching her by surprise, Kitty went down, not phasing through like she would’ve. Rin fire hose blasted Kitty, getting Regina wet in the process, but doing a thorough job of scaring Kitty off. “I got her!” Rin giggled happily.  
“You also got me, Princess!” Regina spat at her. “Maldita! I’m soaked to the core! You couldn’t have aimed a little better? Or, better yet, not gotten her until I wasn’t in the way!”  
“I’m sorry,” Rin apologized. “If I had waited, she would’ve gotten to Matt!” Rin turned to face Matt, only to find that he had gotten wet, too. “Ha!” Rin laughed.  
Matt was not amused. “When is this stupid session over?”  
“Probably soon,” Jubilee reasoned. “It was a thirty minute training session. The program will automatically shut off when thirty minutes goes by. Unless Logan decides that we did so horribly we have to do it again. Which he might, because Bobby got caught so early on, and Matt got beat by a girl.”  
“That’s sexist,” Rin grumbled.  
“Sorry,” Jubilee apologized. “He got beat by someone half his size,” correcting herself, Jubilee bent down next to Matt. “Wanna tell us what your plan is?”  
Matt snorted. “No chance in Hell. But you’ve mostly guessed it. Gambit is capturing you while the rest distract you. The rest I’m keeping to myself.”  
“I think he could use a little motivation,” Regina smiled wickedly, and Matt’s face paled.  
“Are you sure-” Rin started, but then the Danger Room’s disguise began to fade.  
“Training session over,” the voice spoke over the intercom. Immediately they could see where everyone was camped out and where Bobby and Daniel were tied up. They turned around to see Kurt and Gambit were waiting behind them.  
“Ah!” Rin jumped. “I didn’t even see you!”  
“Well, dat’s one of da pointers of being a thief,” Gambit smiled.  
The other members of his team walked over to join them, and Rin turned around to unstick Matt from the ground. After he got up, he smiled briefly at Rin before continuing to scowl, walking to the door exiting the Danger Room. As soon as the group left, however, they were greeted by not just a grumpier than usual Wolverine, but a twenty times angrier looking girl who looked about Rin’s age, and a man who wore something that resembled a Spider Man suit, but was lacking the blue and the web design.  
“Who are they?” Jubilee asked, almost at the exact same time Regina exclaimed,  
“You!” pointing to Deadpool, her fists clenched into fists. “You’re the man who open fired on McDonald’s!” she looked like she was going to kill him. “You killed my only friend!” all of the windows that looked into the Danger Room shattered.  
“Oh yeah!” Deadpool tapped his chin as if he was recalling that. “Well, technically I wasn’t open firing, I had a specific target.”  
“Well then why the hell didn’t you aim for them!” Regina was about to lunge at him, but Rin touched her arm gently.  
“Obviously he’s helping us, otherwise Logan would’ve killed him,” she pointed out.  
Regina huffed, but didn’t say anything. “As fun as this social hour is, we have bigger problems to discuss,” X-23 extended and retracted her claws for emphasis, to the shock of everyone. “And it’s not something I’d like to do in front of your…” she looked directly at Deadpool as she said this next part. “Fan club.”  
~Commercial Break~  
~In Matt’s dorm~  
Matt had been given the unfortunate luck of sharing a dorm with Daniel. That boy, while nice enough, never shut up. He was worse than Kitty. At least Kitty didn’t make up stories that made her seem impressive. Apparently Daniel had been some what of a Mr. Popularity at his old school, and while he quickly realized that that wasn’t the case here, that didn’t stop him from at least attempting to show off to Matt.  
Not all the girls had to share dorms. At least, Matt knew that Kitty, Jubilee, and Rogue didn’t have to. Rin shared one with Regina, but Regina didn’t seem too bad. Matt could maybe understand why Rogue didn’t before she left, but Kitty and Jubilee? They were the lucky ones.  
Anyway, that wasn’t the point of his inner rant. The point was finally being alone.  
Or so he thought.  
~Secret by the Pierces plays over next few scenes~  
“Hey,” someone whispered. At first he thought it was Kitty, since he couldn’t see anyone, but then he recognized a shadow on the wall, and the very violent undertone. “Remember me?”  
“Yeah, Shadow. Come to collect your due,” he hadn’t outright promised her a favor, but he could tell that she wasn’t the type to do things for free. “I don’t know what I expected. What do you want me to do?”  
A shadowy hand reached through the wall and touched an apple that he had set on his nightstand, which immediately turned black before shriveling and rotting. “I want you to listen.”  
The act in itself was threatening, but Matt had something to use against her, too. “Alright,” pause for dramatic effect. “Caterina.”  
A dark mass leaped out of the wall, tackling him with a strength he didn’t expect. Matt was pinned down, both of his hands being held above his head and another of her hands was clutching his throat. “What did you just say to me?” she hissed, her throat low in a growl. Matt could feel his airways being closed off, so he used all of his concentration to shut down her senses. Something was inside of her mind, momentarily blocking him out, but he managed to break through the wall inside her head and take away her senses. That massively backfired when her grip just tightened.  
“If you don’t give me my senses back, I’ll kill you. I might not be able to feel you, but I can’t move my hands any tighter so I know where you are. You have five seconds,” her voice was barely a whisper, as if she knew she couldn’t trust how loud she thought she was and she didn’t want to take the chance of being heard.  
Matt gave her the senses back, and just as blackspots covered his vision, she let go. Her entire body was still wrapped in shadows, even her eyes, which were an eerie black, so he couldn’t see what she looked like. What he could see is that she was angry. “That is not my name. I am Shadow, and if you call me that worthless pet name again, you will regret it.”  
“Why not? It’s a pretty name,” Matt laughed a little bit.  
That comment earned him a punch to the jaw where a bruise would most definately form. “You’re lucky that I’m even wasting my time talking to you. You have no possible idea of what I’m risking here. So you’re going to shut up, and listen, because I risked a hell of a lot more than you can understand helping you check in on your make-believe little sister, so you owe me. You got that? You owe me.”  
Matt stood up, rubbing his cheek. “What do you want me to do?”  
A creepy smile spread across her face. “I need you to pick up a few items for me. It’s not much, but I fully expect you to have them by the end of the week, and for you to pay.”  
Matt was a little shocked at the odd request. He had expected her to ask him to spy or something, but then again if she could go through walls in the form of a shadow, she wouldn’t need help with that.  
“Okay,” he said slowly. “This won’t help you cause a mass murder on this entire Mansion, will it?”  
Her creepy smile grew. “Probably not.”  
~In the Meeting Room~  
X-23 was leaning against the wall, sharpening her claws against each other melodramatically as Deadpool ate out of a box of Fruitloops he’d gotten from who knows where.  
“So let me get this straight,” Logan counted off on his fingers. “You escaped from the Weapon X program, killed all of their workers, but because of previous behavior, S.H.I.E.L.D. has reason to believe that you’re a dangerous weapon and they want to capture you. Why don’t you just convince them that you’re not?”  
Pushing herself off the wall, she stalked towards him. “Because they would never let me. They would lock me up and hope for the best, and God knows that I’ve had enough of that,” she spat, but then looked down. “But there’s another reason. Roughly twenty-two hours ago, as I made my escape, they put this trigger on me. Twenty-four hours after being exposed to it-that’s two more hours-I will lose control of my body and go on a killing frenzy.”  
“Well I was wondering when SOMEBODY would mention the elephant in the room!” Deadpool laughed as X-23 stabbed him with her claws through the chest.  
“Oh yeah! I have had an itch there for weeks! A little to the left,” he panted.  
X-23 rolled her eyes in disgust, pulling her claws out of him and turning back to Logan. “And you need to stop me. I don’t trust Deadfool over to stop me, he just loves killing people too much.”  
“You said that you have two hours?” he asked gruffly, and X-23 nodded. “Fine. If S.H.I.E.L.D. comes, then I’ll help you escape. And in two hours, I’ll stop you from killing anyone. But I have one more question.”  
“Fire away,” she replied.  
“I WAS WONDERING WHEN YOU WERE GOING TO SAY THAT!” Deadpool smiled as he pulled out two guns.  
“Wade Wilson I swear to God that if you fire those guns I will cut off the barrels on all of them and they’ll be broken forever,” X-23 threatened as Deadpool frowned and put them away.  
“Why did you say it’s all my fault?” Logan asked.  
“Because,” X-23 said. “If you hadn’t escaped and killed all of the scientists, one of the scientists son wouldn’t have created me, the ultimate weapon. They cloned me from you, almost directly. But he hated me so much, he tortured me, forced me to kill the only people I ever cared about. And all of it is your fault,” she retracted her claws. “All of it.”  
~Commercial Break~  
~In Kitty’s room~  
Kitty spun around in her outfit for Jubilee. She was wearing leggings with a knee length, black flowy skirt, along with her favorite graphic tee and a matching black cardigan. “I love it!” she squealed.  
“Me too! And hopefully Piotr will, too,” Kitty smiled, then the smile faded. “I wish Rogue was here.”  
Jubilee’s face fell, too. “Me too. But she made her decision, and we have to make ours. And right now, the only decision you need to be worried about is what earrings you are going to wear with that outfit.”  
Kitty smiled again before walking over to a draw and pulling out silver studs and sticking them in. “Already decided.”  
“Awesome. And just in time,” Jubilee said as the clock hit five. Almost instantly, there were three nervous knocks on the door.  
Kitty opened the door, suddenly nervous. As amazing as it felt to finally make a decision about her feelings, she was afraid that she had made the wrong choice. What if he didn’t like her like she thought he did? Kitty brushed that thought aside as first date jitters. “Hey,” she smiled shyly.  
“Hello, Kitty,” Piotr blushed immensely. “You look beautiful.”  
Now Kitty was blushing, too. “Thanks. You, like, look really good too.”  
Jubilee tapped Kitty on the shoulder. “You guys should get going. The entire date isn’t going to be standing in the doorway.”  
“Uh, yes,” Piotr smiled. “Shall we?”  
Kitty nodded. “Yeah, lets-lets go.”  
~In the backyard of the Mansion~  
X-23 fought against some of the Mansion’s training programs as Deadpool did backflips and pretty much played over the others, Logan watching all of this.  
That girl was his daughter? Well, maybe not technically, but how much closer could you get before her actually being his...daughter. She was cloned from him, and she was a kid for God’s sake! She looked about fourteen, maybe younger. From the way she spoke, she had been training her entire life, and she went through the Weapon X process when she was around eight. From what Logan could gather with his broken memories, it had been traumatizing enough for him, and he had been a grown man when it had happened to her. She was a child! Not that she’d ever admit it, Logan thought to himself as she completely demolished the training course.  
And in a strange way, she reminded him of Rogue…  
He remembered seeing her the first day they met, hitchhiking a ride in the back of his Motor Home. Back then she was so...shy. Logan almost hated to admit it, but back then she was almost weak. He would never call her completely weak, anyone who managed to withstand their parents throwing them out, then being kidnapped and used as a conductor to turn all important political people into mutants had to be somewhat tough, but she’d grown up a lot. Now she could almost take down Logan. Almost.  
He was torn from his thoughts as a helicopter tore up the grass. There was a largely obvious S.H.I.E.L.D. symbol printed on its side. Logan instinctively checked to see where X-23 was, only to see that she was gone, and Deadpool had managed to burn a winky face into the ground. Folding his arms with his usual gruff expression on his face as Fury descended from the hovercraft. “Logan.”  
“Fury,” he grumbled in return. “What do you want?”  
“Someone escaped from the Weapon X program,” Fury explained, Logan keeping his best poker face on. “Your clone.”  
“My clone?” Logan repeated. “They cloned me? There’s another me running around?”  
“Unfortunately for all of us,” Fury said. “They did make a few changes. She’s called X-23, and is 14 years old. She too went through the Weapon X process.”  
“She’s not a science experiment, she’s a child!” Logan spat.  
From the woods, X-23 listened in. She knew that she was out of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s range, but her advanced senses let her know as if she was standing right next to them. Deadpool had followed her into the woods, but he was silent, too. Soon the helicarrier disappeared into the horizon. “You know, I think that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s going downhill,” Deadpool commented.  
“Shut up,” X-23 growled, looking towards Logan. “What time is it?”  
“I don’t know! Does this suit look like it has a watch?” Deadpool grumbled. “You know, it’s a good thing that this is fanfiction rather than an actual TV show, otherwise this last scene couldn’t happen because, you know,” he looked at you. “Studio ownership issues.”  
“I will never understand you,” X-23 shook her head before realizing that her claws were extended. She pulled them back in, only for them to extend out again. “Dammit! It’s started,” she darted forward towards Logan. “I have maybe five minutes before I start killing everybody. So unless that you want this school to have a considerable less amount of students, you should hold up your end of the deal.”  
~Locked Away by Rock City plays until end credits~  
She and Logan ran through the woods, darting in and out of trees until they were a few miles away from the Mansion. Suddenly X-23 froze, her hands twitching, and her eyes turned red. She suddenly lunged at Logan, who countered her attack. Slashing at him, she tried her hardest to kill him. Finally she managed to stab him in the stomach, causing a messy wound that would kill anyone else.  
“Kid, can you hear me?” he asked, and despite the obvious fact that she was not in control nor responsible for the attempted murder on him, she growled out a single sentence.  
“I am not a kid.”  
“Sure, kid,” Logan leaped up into a tree, trying to draw her up and away from the Mansion even more. She followed him up the tree, jumping from branch to branch. Soon they were a good twenty feet in the air. X-23 slashed at Logan, but he evaded it, and the force of him shaking the tree forced X-23 to fall to the ground. She attempted to catch a branch, but her claws slashed it off, sending her tumbling to the ground. Logan climbed down to where X-23 was sitting up. Her eyes were back to normal, but he still approached her cautiously. “Hey, you back to you?”  
X-23 nodded. “Yeah, it’s mostly all worn off,” she stood up, pulling her claws back in. “Ironically enough, that’s the first time that I haven’t killed anyone while under that influence.”  
“Are you going to stay at the Mansion?” Logan couldn’t deny that since finding out she was pretty damn close to his daughter, he’d gotten a little bit of a soft spot for the tough as nails girl.  
“No. I’m leaving. S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t know I’ve been here, it’ll throw them off of my trail for a little while. Enough to give me time to get away,” X-23 explained.  
“What should I tell Deadpool?” Logan asked.  
“Just tell him thanks for help, but never talk to me again,” X-23 showed the briefest of smiles. “As for you…maybe I’ll see you again. Maybe not. Bye, Logan,” she said as she ran further into the woods away from the Mansion.  
“Bye, kid.”  
~End Credits~  
Promo for next episode, ‘Meet the Morlocks’:  
Rin gets an offer that’s hard to refuse while meeting the Morlocks when something goes horribly wrong, Gambit is forced to do something he knows will haunt him when the time comes to finally pay his debt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N (again)- X-23 is not an OC. She's an actual real comic-canon character, as is all of her backstory. I'm sure some of you know her but she's not as well known as, say, Deadpool and I just wanted to clarify. Speaking of Deadpool, I hope I did him justice. Sorry to all of the Romy shippers who are reading this for Romy and are plotting to throw me out of the website with pitchforks and torches for not having much of it in this episode. Unfortunately, there won't be much for the next two or so episodes due to Rogue's rash decision, but I promise to make it up to you in the future. In a completely contradictory statement, I am considering doing something very cruel in the final episode of the season that is comic canon, and broke my heart. Maybe with a few changes. Please feel free to leave your thoughts (positive or HELPFUL CRITICISM, not hate) in the review thingy below, along with characters or ships you'd like to see more of. Thanks for reading :*)


	8. Meet the Morlocks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin gets an offer that's hard to refuse while meeting the Morlocks when something goes horribly wrong, Gambit is forced to do something he knows will haunt him when the time finally comes to pay his debt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: as usual, this story is inspired by and the writing style is based off of the ARogueGambit7's FANTASTICAL AMAZING STORY 'Mutant High: Revolutionary' GO read it. Also, I feel the need to clarify that this is not based off of one single X-Men media, it's a combination of the movies, comics, and cartoons. And the horror that is my imagination. And PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW I HONESTLY DON'T CARE IF IT'S JUST SAYING HI.   
> Enjoy the story.   
> (p.s. this is my fourth attempt at posting this)

**~Season One, Episode Eight~**

**~Meet the Morlocks~**

_~In Matt’s Dorm~_

“Dan, did you borrow my computer?” Matt asked, looking in the drawer where he usually kept it.

Daniel’s face turned bright red as he moved a book and handed his laptop back to Matt. “Sorry. I just needed to use it for a little bit, and you weren’t there, so I just-”

“Dude, calm down. It’s alright. Just-ask next time?” Matt didn’t feel the need to yell at him for taking it-the redness on his face was enough to ensure that he didn’t do it again. Matt was a little nervous, however, to see what was in his history, and find out whatever Daniel was doing on his computer. Very few things could inspire that much redness in his face.

“Yeah. Thanks, bro,” Daniel smiled.

“Don’t call me bro,” said Matt, and Daniel nodded as he made his way out the door.

“Yeah, alright. Thanks for letting me borrow your computer. I’m gonna go and see what everyone else is up to. Watch some TV-” Daniel started to explain.

“I don’t really care,” Matt smirked a little bit to himself. “Just go wherever you’re going to go.”

“Bye,” Daniel swung the door behind him.

Matt watched him leave, laughing to himself. It was times like this when he really doubted all of the stories that Daniel endlessly told him.

“I think that I just threw up a little bit in my mouth,” Shadow gagged from behind him. Matt turned and saw her, wrapped in shadows as usual, making a gagging motion. “I would burn that computer if I were you. Nothing’s ever really deleted from your history, and one can suspect what he-”

“Just, stop,” Matt held up a hand, then reached under his bed to pull out the bag of items she’d asked for. “I got your stuff. You’re either a weird hoarder or you have a secret plan. I’m going to guess the second one.”

“Gee, aren’t you perspective,” Shadow snorted. “You got it all?”

“Yup. Bag of apples-delicious red, hunting knife, bag of straws, printer paper, floor length black skirt, black sweatshirt, curling iron, and pot of ink with quill,” Matt read off the list. “You said it wasn’t much. All this stuff cost me a fortune!” he frowned.

“I nearly died helping you out. This is the least you could do,” she reasoned, then extended her hand for the stuff.

“So do you live here or something?” Matt asked. The question had been burning on his mind for quite a while, and at the moment she didn’t seem too angry.

The instant she touched the bag it turned black, the shadows extending from herself to it.

“See you later,” she said, a devilish tone behind her words as she disappeared.

“Unfortunately,” Matt muttered in reply.

_Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons_

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Aqua: Danielle Campbell (young)

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young)

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

Dania Ramirez as Callisto

Jason Isaacs as ~hehehehe not telling~

Taylor Mane

Kirsten Prout

Teresa Palmer

*Mackenzie Foy

_~New York City~_

Gambit walked along the streets, winking at the girls who passed him and eyeing the stores. Technically he wasn’t allowed to be leaving the Mansion, not without permission and an adult with him, but at the moment he really didn’t care. He had things he wanted to buy and the Mansion was getting stifling. As long as he was careful and he made sure that there weren’t any murderous blonde assassins after him, he was safe.

Or not.

He was just about to turn into a cigarette store-his guilty pleasure, he had been trying to quit but as of late he was running out of reasons to-when he heard familiar laughter and talking as people ran to catch up with him. “Hey, Gambit!” someone exclaimed, and Gambit slowly turned to see some of the students following him-Rin, Daniel, Regina, and Bobby.

“What are you petits doing out here?” he asked them.

“You’re not much older than us,” Bobby pointed out. “And you’re out here. So why can’t we be out here?”

“Does da Professor know dat you’re out here? Gambit don’ wanna get into trouble because you followed ’im,” Gambit folded his arms. It seemed like he wasn’t going to be able to get cigarettes today. In his defense, he had tried to quit, but at the moment he’d forgotten why. His hands itched for a pack of cards-that always helped him think-but he had to keep his stance. He had hardly gotten out that day, and he wasn’t in the mood to go home early, especially since he knew he’d be in trouble when he did.

Rin shifted uncomfortably, then turned to face Regina. “We’re going to get in trouble! I told you this was a bad idea.”

“Chica, you need to calm down. If you never get in trouble, you would never have any fun,” Regina smiled mischievously. “Besides, what are they going to do, throw us out?”

“Once they made Kurt clean the Black Bird with a toothbrush,” Bobby laughed. “I think that was Logan’s idea.”

“Well, Gambit don’ like dat idea very much. Maybe you should-” with cat-like agility he whipped around to see a little boy grabbing at his wallet. The boy had to be a mutant. He resembled a frog in a way, his skin tinted green and his face disfigured. Gambit grabbed his wrist, but the kid yanked away, dropping the wallet and running. Chasing after him, Gambit dodged the New Yorkers as the kid led him down into the sewers. The others were following him, shouting at him to slow down and explain himself. Finally Gambit stopped, standing behind a corner. “Dat kid needs to be taught a lesson. Who does he dink he is?” you can’t steal from the Prince of Thieves, he added in his head.

“Gambit, isn’t that a bit...hypocritical of you?” Rin asked. “You’re a thief.”

He smiled deviously. “But that’s the difference, ain’ it? A good thief never gets caught,” the smile fell as he looked around the sewer. Something definitely seemed off, this wasn’t a random choice of hiding. The look on the boy’s face...he knew where he was going. “Something’s up. Let’s have a look around, eh?”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Daniel asked. “He could be dangerous.”

“He’s six. Maybe seven. The point is he’s not what we should be worried about,” Gambit explained.

Suddenly knife was pressed against Regina’s neck. “I think we should be more worried about her,” the woman holding the knife stepped out of the shadows. She had tan skin, dark hair, and an eye patch over her right eye.

“Who are you?” she spat.

**~Commercial Break~**

Regina slowly turned, looking at the woman. “Who are you?”

The woman’s glare passed over all of them, then stopped at Rin. “You’re mutants.”

“I remember you!” Bobby exclaimed, and the woman narrowed her eyes. “Storm-she beat you in battle. You kidnapped Scott and Jean!”

“So it is more of the X-Men,” she said disdainfully. “What do you want?”

“Well for starters,” Regina said sarcastically. “You moving that knife of yours might be nice.”

The woman stared at her for a moment before pulling her knife away. “You would do well to tell Storm that if she fought so hard to win the leadership right, she might want to actually come and visit now and then.”

“Did you really kidnap Ms. Grey and Mr. Summers?” Rin asked curiously.

“I need an heir, and Scott could provide me with one. He is powerful,” the woman shrugged as if it didn’t matter much anymore. “I’ll ask you again, what do you want?”

“Da little boy jus’ tried to steal my wallet. I just wanted to see where he disappeared to,” Gambit looked the woman over. “What’s your name?”

“Callisto,” she sighed. “The little boy is Leech. Down here, we aren’t as privileged as you are, living in a Mansion. We have to stay hidden. More often than not that means stealing.”

“Are you guys hiding down here because of how prejudice everyone is?” Rin asked. “Because I’m sure that the Professor would be alright with letting you stay for-”

“We live down here because we can’t blend in to society like most of you can!” again Callisto’s gaze landed on Rin.

“There’s more of you?” Daniel asked.

Callisto nodded solemnly. “We’re called the Morlocks.”

“And you all live in the sewers?” Regina asked, and Callisto nodded. “That sucks.”

“Can I-” Rin paused, debating. Unconsciously she ran her finger over the scars on her face. “Can we go see them?”

For a few moments Callisto just stared at Rin, before nodding. “If you really want to.”

“Rin, are you sure this is a good idea?” Regina asked.

“They’re not going to hurt us,” she countered, following Callisto.

Regina looked hesitantly at Bobby, Daniel, and Gambit before following Rin. The three boys gave each other cautiously before following the two girls. “Every time I dink dat dere’s goin’ to be a normal day ’round here I’m proven wrong,” Gambit muttered under his breath.

Soon they were all lead into a wide room through the sewer. They had made it into a makeshift home, some beds spread out and a stolen tv with a coat hanger as an antenna, which was playing the news. Most of the younger ones were playing with toys while the older ones and adults were talking to each other in hushed whispers. Nearly every single one of them had a physical mutation, with the exception of a few who were parents or siblings of kids with visible mutations.

All eyes turned towards them as they entered the room. Many of the adults frowned at them. “Callisto, what is going on here?”

“She asked if they could see inside here,” Callisto gestured to Rin, who smiled brightly, although the look in her eyes didn’t match. “I was not going to turn them down.”

A little girl with pink hair and bones protruding from all over her body ran up to Rin. “You’re very pretty.”

“Thank you,” Rin bent down to her level. “You’re very pretty, too.”

The little girl shook her head as if she disagreed. “I have these pokey thingies. And my hair is pink.”

“So? I know people who dye their hair to look like yours. And those bones are awesome!” the little girl still didn’t look convinced. “I have these scars under my face. Does that mean that I’m not pretty?” the little girl traced Rin’s scars.

“No,” the little girl thought about this. “I guess you’re right. They are kinda cool.”

Rin smiled brightly. “They are. What’s your name?”

“Sarah,” she replied shyly. “What’s yours?”

“I’m Rin,” Rin opened her mouth to ask something else when Bobby’s phone went off.

“Uh, guys, as fun as this is-” he looked up from the text. “Professor just realized that we’re missing, and uh…” he held up his phone. “It was Logan who just texted me.”

“I don’t know about you guys, but I plan on living another day,” Daniel said, heading towards the exit. Everyone started to follow him, except Rin.

“Thank you,” she said to Callisto.

“You could stay here, if you wanted to,” Callisto said in an undertone. “If living in the upper world has become too much.”

Rin bit her lip. “I have family up there. But I’m not afraid of them. I promise, though, I’ll come back as soon as I can, bring toys, supplies and such,” Rin shrugged. “It’s the least I could do.”

“That would be wonderful. Thank you,” Callisto smiled back at Rin before turning back to the Morlocks. Rin watched them for a moment before continuing back with the others.

**~Commercial Break~**

_~In the Professor’s office~_

 

“How many times do we have to tell you guys that you cannot sneak out without our permission!” Storm pinched the bridge of her nose, another hand pressed on her forehead.

“You kids can’t keep putting yourself all high and mighty and ignoring the rules,” Logan growled. Gambit was leaning against the wall, flipping cards, Rin was sitting on a chair with a distant expression on her face, Daniel and Bobby looked at least a little bit ashamed of themselves, but Regina looked like she’d been through this a thousand times before.

“For now, you are all on probation,” the Professor started, and they at least all had the dignity to not looks surprised. “You will also be in charge of cleaning the Danger Room after each session, and have an extra hour long training session with Logan for two weeks.”

All of them nodded, but Bobby spoke up. “Professor, isn’t that a bit much? All we did was sneak out for a few hours, it’s not like we skipped class or something like that.”

Daniel shot him a ‘what-in-the-hell-are-you-doing-shut-up!’ look. “Well, Mr. Drake, this isn’t the first time that you in particular have snuck out. Would you suggest that you get more and lessen your friends punishments?” Bobby shook his head rapidly. “Well than I think we should keep it as it is. If you lie to us and sneak out, we cannot provide protection, or help you. We wouldn’t know where you were, and if you needed help we couldn’t give it to you.”

“We understand,” Daniel hung his head.

“In that case, you can all go. You start your punishments tomorrow,” everyone except for Rin stood up, leaving.

“Sir?” she raised her hand a little.

“Yes, Rin?” he asked, not surprised. Her mind had felt adrift ever since she walked in.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” she looked to Logan, and then to Ororo before adding, “Alone?”

“Of course. You two can go now,” he gestured his hand towards the door. “What do you want to talk about?”

_~In Gambit’s Room~_

Gambit collapsed on the bed, just wanting to get some shuteye. He couldn’t believe that those idiot kids had gotten him caught! If they hadn’t followed him, the teachers would’ve never realized that he was gone. And he wouldn’t be stuck in a training session with monsieur claws. Gambit shuddered at the thought.

His mind wandered to the Morlocks he’d seen in the sewers. He pitied them, not being able to live up in the world because of their appearances. His eyes got him weird enough looks, and he could cover those up with a simple pair of sunglasses. He imagined if he had a mutation like Leech, or the little girl, Sarah. They would never be able to blend in, not with mutations like those.

An abrupt ringing brought Gambit back to the real world. Not that many people knew his number, so he was immediately cautious when answering it. “Bonjour? Who is dis?”

“Gambit,” a smooth voice replied over the other end. “It has been a long time.”

It took him a moment to place the voice, and when Gambit did, a look of horror crossed his face. “What do you want?” that was a stupid question, Gambit knew what he wanted.

“A while ago I did you a favor. It’s time to pay up,” Gambit flinched at his words-he could practically hear the menacing smile crossing his lips.

“Yeah?” Gambit replied gruffly. “What does dat mean?”

_~In the Professor’s office~_

“I-when we were out, someone tried to steal from Gambit,” she considered how to continue. She wasn’t even sure what she wanted to say.

“Are you concerned that something important was taken from him?” the Professor asked.

“No, not at all. He didn’t lose anything. It’s just...we followed the thief, and it led us to an underground sewer. And in there...there was a group of people, they called themselves the Morlocks,” Rin explained. “People down there...they have physical mutations. They can’t be in the...this world because they’re afraid of what people will say about them.”

“I know of them. About a year ago, give or take, they kidnapped two of my, well then they were my students. Scott and Jean. One of our other teachers, Miss Monroe, fought for control of the Morlocks,” the Professor told her.

“So...Miss Monroe is in charge of the Morlocks? She’s their leader?” Rin confirmed.

“Yes.”

“But…” Rin didn’t understand. “I’m confused. It’s horrible down there. Is she...is she sending them help? Food or supplies or something like that?”

“Rin, you have to understand that it’s hard. We have to make ends meet here, and the Morlocks aren’t exactly friendly towards us. We have, yes, sent them things, but we don’t want to risk our students safety,” the Professor sighed. Rin wanted to point out that he lived in a Mansion, and that he was one of the richest people in New York and he had more than enough, and that they were people down there who needed his help, but she didn’t, because she could understand.

“Did you...ask them if they wanted to stay here?” Rin asked.

The Professor nodded. “Something tells me that you did, too. Until the day that mutants are truly accepted into the world with no prejudice, they will never accept our offers.”

“Okay,” Rin spoke hoarsely, then cleared her throat. “Yeah, I can completely understand,” she put on one of her brightest smiles that she could muster. “It’s just...I needed to know.”

“And I can understand that. I also can see why you would relate to them on such a level. I know that you personally have never felt any shame in your mutation, and you shouldn’t,” the Professor folded his hands into a pyramid shape. “But they do, and you want to help them.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I hope that one day I can.”  

**~Commercial Break~**

_~In Rin’s room, two weeks later~_

Regina collapsed on the bed, exhausted from the punishment training. “Oh my God!” Regina smiled widely. “I am so glad that that’s done with!”

“Yeah,” Rin nodding in agreement. “I didn’t realize that he could get any harsher than our usual sessions. But it is our fault. If we hadn’t snuck out-”

“We wouldn’t have had all of the thrill that we did, and we never would’ve met the Morlocks,” Regina pointed out. “Say, did you ever go and visit them like you said you would?”

“No! I feel so guilty, because I promised that I would, and I haven’t left in two weeks!” Rin sighed. “The Professor told me that they weren’t really...accepting any help, but I want to and…”

“And despite the fact that you’re a goody two shoes, you’ve always managed to get what you want,” Regina finished. “Yeah, I’ve noticed that about you, Princess,” at this point Rin didn’t even bother to correct her. “Somehow, you never do anything wrong, break any rules or whatever, and all you have to do is say please and you get what you want,” Regina jumped over, sitting next to Rin. “And that really makes me curious as to why. But you’ve never even noticed that. So now you can’t plead your way into something and so now you’re stuck.”

“That’s not very nice,” Rin postulated.

“That’s my point, Princess. The real world isn’t very nice at all. You wouldn’t know that because you’ve never lived in it,” Regina shrugged.

“Well, what do you suggest I do? I don’t want to get in trouble again,” Rin supposed that Regina got in trouble a lot, not just from the speech and her bad-girl-doesn’t-care demeanor, but she never seemed afraid of getting in trouble. Like, at all. It wasn’t natural.

“They won’t yell at you. You either A) get in and out no problem, easy peasy, or B) you get caught, but then you explain them that you were delivering supplies to those in need, which you could never get punished for. Just shed a few tears, hope they remember that you have a physical mutation and are like them. It’ll all work itself out in the end,” Regina got up, grabbing her bag. “C’mon, live a little. You won’t get in trouble.”

Rin smiled and grabbed a bag. “Anything you’d like to donate?”

“I think I have a few old clothes that I could donate. Living here has really upped my standards,” Regina grabbed a few old outfits.

“I’m going to get some food from the kitchen. You find anything else here and meet me in front in ten minutes, alright?” Rin slung her bag over her shoulder, stopping at the bedroom door.

“Yeah. See you in a few,” nodded Regina.

_~Somewhere in New York~_

“I brought them,” Gambit said gravelly. He hadn’t gotten much sleep in the past few weeks. He’d told the Professor that he was going home to clean up a mess that his family had made. Instead of going to New Orleans, however, he headed straight to where he was told. His job was simple-roundup powerful mutants from around the country to work for Mr. High and Mighty. He did, but it was hard. Three of the ones he chose announced themselves the leaders, and they were all told to go in the room and meet up for their mission. After this, Gambit would be even. No more debts.

“There’s a tunnel underneath of New York city with sewers,” his voice was serious, as always, but there was an undertone to it...something that Gambit couldn’t place. “You’re to go down there and find any powerful mutants. Bring the ones that you find up here and back to me,” his eyes stopped on each of them before resting on Gambit. “Do you understand?”

What was there that was confusing? “Yes,” Gambit spat, then added in an undertone. “Sinister.”

_~New York City~_

Regina and Rin traced their steps to where they followed Gambit. “I think…” Rin looked from store to store. “There! I recognize that one. We go the next alley over and there’ll be a way down in to the sewers.”

“You said that last time,” Regina complained, but as they turned the recognized the alley.

“Here it is,” Rin smiled. “I can’t wait to see the look on their faces when they see what we got them!” Rin had gotten a good range of food from the kitchen, and Regina had donated a lot of her clothes. They also decided to bring some blankets-it looked cold down there.

They slowly made their way down, making sure that nobody was following them. Once they were down there, Rin called out. “Callisto? Are you down here?” no response. “Sarah?” Rin tried, remembering the name of the little girl. “Leech?” this time, footsteps approached them slowly, turning the corner. It was Callisto, black eyepatch and all.

“You actually came back,” she said, shocked. “I didn’t think that you would. What took so long.”

“We were grounded, we couldn’t go. They hardly let us out of their sight,” Regina answered. “But we’re here now, and we brought supplies. Let’s go to the HQ, shall we?”

Callisto studied them for a moment before nodding in agreement. “Yes. Let’s go.”

_~Back alleyways of New York~_

Gambit studied his companions. Sabertooth he’d heard of-an angry man and long time rival of Logan. It’s a good thing that he didn’t know where Gambit was staying, or he’d kill Gambit. The two other women who’d pushed themselves in charge, nicknamed Vertigo and Malice, whispered to each other in their own snarling way, insulting everything under the sun. Vertigo’s powers were self explanatory-she could make her victims so dizzy they didn’t know where they were, which way was up and which way was down. Gambit knew from experience. Malice’s was...different. From what he could understand, her powers included possession, and the body that she currently inhabited wasn’t her own. She was, however, in a mutant, so she could also access the mutants power of controlling metals. One thing that Malice had complained about her body-quite often-was her hair. It was a bright green that was easily rememberable.

It was like Rogue’s, Gambit thought. Both of them had obvious traits that prevented them from hiding. Both used others powers. But Rogue wasn’t like her. Or maybe she was. She’d betrayed them all by going to the Brotherhood. Gambit shook his head to himself. Who was he to make morality judgements? He had literally made a deal with the devil.

“What are you doin’, Cajun?” Sabertooth snarled.

“Wonderin’ how I ever got myself into a mess where I was stuck with a ton of five year olds havin’ a pissin’ contest,” Gambit chuckled darkly.

_~Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance plays over next few scenes~_

“You better watch your tone,” Vertigo warned.

“Or I’ll feel your wrath?” Gambit finished. “You’ve made that threat a few times. Losing its charm.”

“Would you guys stop it?” Malice mummered. “We’re there. Just down this tunnel.”

“Just get the strong Morlocks, and leave. No harm, no foul, and I never have to see you guys again,” Gambit smirked.

As they crept down the sewers, silently approaching the Morlocks, Gambit couldn’t shake the feeling that something was horribly off.

~In the Morlocks Headquarters~

“Thank you so so so so so so much!” Sarah hugged Rin tightly.

“It was nothing. I’m just sorry that it took so long,” Rin replied. Everyone was going through what they’d brought, and it filled Rin with a pleasant warmth to see it. Regina had decided to go up to the surface to use the restroom and look around at some of the stores.

“Might as well,” she had said. “You might get away with this, but I don’t know if I will.”

Rin tried hard not to dwell on that.

“Have you thought anymore about-” Callisto started when there was a high pitched scream. Rin turned around to see a big burly mutant ripping out the heart of a Morlock, one with a third eye on their forehead and strange spikes protruding from their temples.

Suddenly everyone was screaming, there was mass chaos, people running, but it got them nowhere. More and more people barged in, killing the Morlocks off as if they weren’t even people. Cutting them down like trees. Rin grabbed Leech, who was nearest to her, and swung him behind a dumpster into a temporary hiding place. “Stay there,” Rin whispered, only to be pulled back. Rin shot a powerful blast of icy water at them, forcing them against the wall. Everyone was fighting back, to little prevail. Their attackers were just too powerful, the Morlocks too inexperienced at fighting. Rin turned to see Gambit, looking horror at the mass murder.

What are they doing?!? Gambit thought as he looked at the scene before him. He tried to stop them, but he was just thrown back by Sabertooth. “Stay outta this Cajun if ya wanna live.”

Gambit looked around at all of them, and his horror only grew when he saw Rin looking around, scared and confused. Merde! Of course Rin came back to help. That was what she did. Rin made eye contact with him for a second, her confusion growing.

Why is Gambit here? Rin wondered, then saw a little girl getting pummeled by Sabertooth. Sarah! Rin ripped her free from him, nearly tossing her into Gambit’s arms. “Take her to safety!” Rin shouted before she was yanked back by her hair. Rin screamed, kicking and fighting, but she couldn’t get free. She tried shooting her powers at him, but she couldn’t get a good aim. Ohgodohgodohgod.

Gambit took the little girl outside to the edge. “Stay here, and hide. It’s going to be all right,” he promised her. A promise he couldn’t keep.

“My mommy-” she started before crying again.

“Just-stay here,” he repeated.

Just as Gambit turned around to get Rin out of there when he saw Sabertooth throwing her to the ground. Rin started to fight back again, but he slashed at her in the chest, and even from the distance Gambit could see that the wounds were deep. Rin stumbled backwards, then fell to the ground, unmoving. “Bon Dieu , non!” he swore, then turned to the little girl. He needed to get her out of there. What was her name? Sarah? “Sarah, come on. We need to go,” she held her arms out for him, and he lifted her up, wincing as her bones poked him in his stomach. “Don’t worry, les petit amour,” he hugged her. “I’ll get you somewhere safe.”

**~Commercial Break~**

Regina didn’t find anything good at the stores, so she decided to go back to where she’d left Rin and the other Morlocks. Once she got to the entrance to the sewers she saw that something was off. There was blood, lots of it, as if someone had managed to escape from whatever horror was going on down there but was injured.

_~If I Die Young by The Band Perry plays until end credits~_

“God, Princess, what did you get yourself into this time? Everyone’s always saving you,” Regina muttered, picking up her pace down there.

When she saw the scene down there, she was wishing that she and Rin had gone a different day. Just an hour earlier would’ve been good. There was blood everywhere, the Morlocks were slaughtered-all of it was a scene from a nightmare. Regina looked at all of the deceased, her breath caught in her throat. But then she saw Rin, lying unmoving on the floor. “Rin!” Regina rushed over to her, her eyes watering.

Rin’s chest was soaked in blood, slash marks across it. “Rin!” she repeated, shaking her at the shoulders. “Rin! Stay with me! Listen to me!” Rin’s eyelids fluttered, but she didn’t say anything. So she’s alive. Alright. I can work with this, Regina thought, lifting her up. The other girl was strangely light, which Regina hadn’t expected, but it was still hard work getting her out of the sewer. As soon as she did, she started shouting. “HELP ME! HELP ME!” at first nobody answered her, but then someone rushed over.

“What happened?” he pulled out his phone, dialing the ambulance.

“My-my friend and I were exploring the sewers, and I left to go up and use the bathroom, and I came back and-” Regina shook her head. She’d always been good at lying.

“It’s okay, stay calm,” he assured her. “The ambulance is on their way, and I’m a doctor.”

He looked pretty young to her. “You’re...a doctor?” uttered Regina.

“Okay, doctor in training. Give me your jacket,” he ordered, and Regina obliged. He pressed the jacket to her chest, then took off his scarf and tied it around her. “This will hold off the bleeding, but she’s lost a lot of blood.”

“Is that why she’s unconscious?” asked Regina.

“No, I think she’s gone into shock,” he replied, feeling her pulse. “Do you have any way to contact her family?”

“I-I don’t know how to reach her family, but we go to the same boarding school,” she needed to contact the Professor.

The man wrapped his own jacket around Rin, who had started to shiver. “Is she a mutant?” he asked, finally getting a look at her face.

“Does that change anything?” Regina snapped.

“No. The genetic mutations are in the DNA. It shouldn’t affect her healing ability or is that her mutation? A healing factor?” he asked, genuinely curious.

“Not something they teach you in Medical School?” Regina questioned.

“No. They’ve tried but it always ends in debate,” he shrugged, then checked Rin’s pulse again. “God, I need to talk to them about the ambulance response time. She doesn’t have much longer, I’m surprised she’s not dead already.”

“Aren’t you cheerful,” Regina remarked. “Talk about real life experience. This should get you some extra credit, at least.”

“Yeah, I think so,” he agreed as the ambulance swung around the corner.

“Sir, M’am, please step away from the girl,” the paramedic ordered, and Regina obliged.

“Is she going to be okay?” Regina asked.

Nobody answered.

**~End Credits~**

Promo for next episode ‘Brotherhood of the Damned’:

Rogue wonders if she made a mistake, but then a mission with Mystique changes everything.

 

****  
  



	9. The Brotherhood of the Damned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Promo for this episode:  
> Rogue wonders if she made a mistake, but then a mission with Mystique changes everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:  
> As always, this stories format is based of off the wonderful ARogueGambit7 's story 'Mutant High: Revolutionary'. Secondly, I changed the name of this story from 'New Mutants, New Adventures' to this. And I have to give credit to a TV show 'The Originals' which is a spin off of 'The Vampire Diaires' for the title name of this episode. Enjoy. Please review.

**Season One, Episode Nine**

**Brotherhood of the Damned**

_In the Brotherhood’s house_

“Yo, Blob, hand me the chips,” Toad ordered, extending a hand out to the large mutant.

“No. They’re mine,” he frowned, throwing another handful into his mouth.

“Dude, if you’re not going to give them to me, I’ll just take them back myself,” Blob still kept eating them, so Toad launched his tongue out, wrapping it around the bag and taking it back.

“God, you two are disgustin’,” Rogue shook her head to herself. Almost the entire time that she’d been with the Brotherhood, they’d hardly done anything except eat and watch TV. Only a few times had they gone out and made a difference. Mystique said that she had a plan, but as of the moment Rogue didn’t see what she could do.

Toad stuck his tongue out at her. “Whatever. You try to get food from Blob.”

“Ah at least go shoppin’ for food. If it were up to you three, we’d never get any food, and this place would be surrounded in trash,” Rogue was less than impressed at the state of the house at the time of her arrival, but a quick explanation of what her mutation was got them moving, and it was now almost decent.

“We went shopping!” Lance frowned at Rogue.

“You just got chips and cereal. Ah at least got real food,” Rogue pointed out. “If it weren’t for me, y’all would look like Blob.”

Blob looked offended at that, as if he couldn’t see how that was a bad thing. “Yo, she has a point. At least Rogue knows how to cook.”

“What’s wrong with my cooking?” Lance asked.

“You can’t. That was kinda what Toad was sayin’,” Rogue replied to the laughter of Toad and Blob.

The ground around the Brotherhood shook, Lance storming outside. “He’s a drama queen,” Blob laughed.

You wouldn’t tease your old friends like this, Logan sighed in her head.

But I guess that you’ve changed, huh? Bobby added. That’s why you left us for a group that’s literally called ‘the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Glad to know that all of those secrets are in safe hands, Kitty snarled in a very un-Kitty-like way.

I didn’t even know you for more than five minutes and I can already tell you’re a bitch, a male voice added. Who was he? Oh yeah, some random security guard they had her take out. They asked her to use her powers a lot more than the Mansion did. True, with the X-Men she used it a lot, or what she’d thought was a lot, but here they had her use it almost every other day. It was getting crowded.

“If you’re so great at shopping,” Lance’s voice rang out from the kitchen. “Why are we out of milk, frozen pizza, soda, and chips?”

Rogue sighed. “Because you guys ate all of that stuff yesterday.”

“Then I guess we have to go shopping for some,” he opened up the cookie jar where they kept the money, pulling up a twenty. “See you losers later.”

“Not happening, ah’m comin’ with you. Otherwise ya’ll buy a ton of stuff we absolutely do not need, and we don’ know when she’ll be comin’ back again to give us more money,” Rogue stood up, following him.

“Ya’ kiddin’?” Toad scoffed. “She’s obsessed with you. She won’t leave her precious daughter without food.”

Rogue punched him in the arm. “Shut it, Toad, or you’ll be cryin’ for your mama.”

Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Aqua: Danielle Campbell (young)

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young)

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

 Rebecca Romijn as Mystique

 Colin Ford as Avalanche

 Mr. Lawrence as Blob

 Cameron Boyce as Toad

Candice Accola

       At the Supermarket

“Ooh ooh ooh! Get those ones!” Lance grabbed at a large bag of chips.

“No. It’s a horrible deal. This one’s better,” Rogue grabbed a slightly smaller bag of off brand chips.

“But-that’s off brand! Those things are horrible,” Lance tried to pull the bag away from Rogue, but she yanked it away.

“How would ya know? You’ve never had any,” Rogue put it in her mini cart and started walking towards the milk section.

“For a good reason!” said Lance, turning the corner quickly and running into Kitty, literally.

“Kitty!” Rogue voiced, surprised. “Ah-ah didn’t expect to see you.”

“Neither did I,” Lance leaned against the shelf. “Hello Kitty-cat.”

Kitty frowned at the sight of him, then turned awkwardly to Rogue. “How-how are you?”

God, it’s no wonder she can’t meet your eyes. She had just gotten out of the Med Bay and you didn’t even stop to make sure that she was alright, Bobby scoffed in her head, causing Rogue to wince.

“Ah-ah’m alright. How are you? How is...is everyone?” Rogue asked.

Like you have any right to know? Magneto laughed. Foolish girl, even I know that you betrayed them.

“I’m, like, good, but…” Kitty’s eyes welled up. Suddenly guilt welled up inside of Rogue, along with a loud chorus of voices of voices, so before Kitty could finish her sentence, Rogue was already across the store looking at soda.

Lance looked at Kitty. “Long time no see. How’s life being pampered?”

She shot a weird look at him. “I’m not pampered. Anything I can help you with?”

“Not at the moment,” Lance smirked at her. “See you later, Kitty-cat,” and went to where Rogue had disappeared to.

_*Flashback*_

_“Boys,” Mystique opened the door to a horribly messy house, with three equally messy boys scrambling to greet her at the door and look somewhat presentable._

_“Mystique! Yo, you’re back,” a short boy with warts and a Toad-like appearance cackled._

_“Did you doubt it?” she raised an eyebrow. The toad-like one looked as if he was going to say something, but another boy, this one with brown hair and an ‘I-don’t care’ expression nudged him in the side._

_“Nope,” the third, a ridiculously fat boy, put on an obviously fake smile. “Who’s this?”_

_“Hello, sweetheart,” Toad made his way to the front, but Rogue scoffed at him, and Mystique all but hissed at him._

_“Manners!” she moved closer to Toad as if she was going to smack him. “This is Rogue. She’ll be joining us.”_

_“Oh God,” Rogue looked around the disgustingly filthy house. “Ah hope this place don’ always look like this. Haven’ you boys learned about cleanin’?”_

_“This is Lance, Blob, and Toad,” Mystique introduced them all. “You’ll be staying here between missions.”_

_“If ah’m stayin’ here, then they’re gonna have to learn how to clean,” Rogue folded her arms._

_“Oh yeah?” Blob stepped inwards. “What are ya’ gonna do about it?”_

_Rogue looked to Mystique for confirmation, who nodded, and Rogue removed a glove and grabbed Blob’s arm and knocking him unconscious. Rogue quickly shoved his persona to the back of her mind as the Professor had taught her, and looked up threateningly. “Anyone else wanna argue about cleaning?” nobody spoke up, both Lance and Toad had their eyes wide. “Good. Let’s get goin’.”_

_*End of Flashback*_

“That was nice,” Lance snorted. “Hey, is Kitty-”

“Don’t even bother. She’s dating Piotr,” Rogue sighed. “At least, she probably is. She was considerin’ it when ah left.”

“I think that with a few days I could change her mind,” Lance smiled to himself, and Rogue shivered at the thoughts of what was going through his mind.

“Nah. Kitty’s the most stubborn person ah’ve ever met. She won’ leave Piotr,” Rogue smiled at the thought of her old family, then frowned as she realized she could never go back. They would hate her. Could she blame them? She literally joined the enemy.

“Whatever you say. Have you got everything? I swiped the milk while talking to Kitty,” he hung it in the air with two fingers.

“Thanks. And yeah, we have everything. Let’s go,” Rogue put the milk in her mini cart and headed towards check out.

**Commercial Break**

_An office in Boston, Massachusetts_

“I’ve printed your schedule all out, Ms. Danvers,” Mystique was in the form of a rather pretty brunette, and more importantly Ms. Carol Danvers’ secretary.

“Good. Did you confirm my flight?” Carol asked, rather rudely. In the three days that Mystique was undercover watching there, she had gathered that ‘Ms. Danvers’ was rather rude. Not mean, but her tone...it just irritated her.

“Yup. You’re all set. The jet will pick you up from the Boston airport at five o’clock P.M. tomorrow afternoon, and your eta is seven thirty,” Mystique put on a fake smile, her mind reeling with her plans. The blonde would never know what hit her.

“Perfect. You’re free to go, Maria. See you later,” Mystique left the room, transforming back into herself once she was alone. Pulling out a phone, Mystique dialed a number she had long since committed to memory. “Have you seen anything new?”

“Nothing concerning your plans,” Destiny replied. “Raven, are you sure that this is the best idea? Even if I don’t see it, something could still-”

“I know what I’m doing,” Mystique snapped. “Just call me if something happens, okay?”

Destiny sighed. “Of course. You know I love her just as much as you do. I simply just don’t want anything to happen to her.”

“Do you think that I don’t care about what happens to her?” Mystique lowered her voice.

“No, not at all. I know that you care for her, I’m just worried that it’s for all of the wrong reasons,” Destiny answered tersely.

“Alright then. I’ll talk to you later, Irene,” Mystique hung up the phone briskly, heading out the door.

In the Brotherhood house

“Yo-why’d you get the no brand?” Toad asked as he went through the food that they bought.

“Little Miss Save-Money made me,” Lance frowned. “She said that they would taste the same.”

“They do!” Rogue exclaimed. “Have ya even tried any?” Toad shrugged, ripping open the bag.

“Hmm...these are kinda good,” Toad said as he shoved handful after handful into his mouth.

“Don’ eat them all now, or there won’ be any left later!” warned Rogue as she stalked upstairs to her bedroom.

You’re a leech, you know that? This time it was a random person, probably someone she’d knocked out on her first mission. No wonder you had to surround yourself with such lowlifes, otherwise you’d never feel good about yourself. Rogue clasped her hand around the railing tight, trying to push him into a locked room inside her mind as the Professor had helped her build. But as more and more people stayed in her head, she was running out of room.

Before she made it all the way up the stairs, however, Mystique came in through the front door. Sighing to herself, she headed back down the stairs. “Hello,” Rogue said.

“Yo, what’s up?” Toad spoke with a slight hint of fear. Rogue couldn’t blame him, even she saw how Mystique was scary.

“I have a mission,” Mystique looked at all of them one at a time before her eyes landed on Rogue. “It’s probably the most important one that I’ve sent you on. So be sure that you do exactly as I say, understood?”

Everyone nodded, and Mystique’s tone of voice peaked Rogue’s curiosity. “What is the mission?” she asked.

“We need to intercept a plane,” Mystique announced. “It has important papers about anti-mutant programs.”

“Fun,” Toad grumbled. “What’s so important about that?”

“You’ll see,” she answered. “I think you will rather like this mission.”

“Oh yeah?” Blob asked, an eyebrow raised. “And why is that?”

“Because,” Mystique drawled. “The flight is taking off from Boston. We’ll be flying there in an hour and we’ll have some time in a hotel while we’re planning tomorrow.”

“Yo, seriously? We get to stay in a hotel?” when Mystique nodded, Toad howled with joy. “Sweet!”

“Yes. Now go pack. We leave in a half an hour,” Mystique nodded. Rogue followed the boys up the stairs, wondering what papers were so impossible that Mystique couldn’t get them herself, and even then, why bring everyone?

**Commercial Break**

_On an airplane, somewhere above Massachusetts_

After the first hour, the excitement of being on a private jet-especially one as decked out as the one they were on-had worn off. Now they just kept whining and asking when they’d land. Not to mention complaining about their ears hurting.

“Guys, ah swear to God that if you don’t stop complainin’ ah will knock you out until we do land,” Rogue threatened.

“I have to agree. You three complaining isn’t going to get us to land any faster,” Mystique growled.

“This is torture! My ears feel like they’re gonna explode,” Toad whined.

“Seriously, Toad?” Rogue pulled off a glove. “Shut up,” that worked well enough.

Rogue closed her eyes, drifting off into sleep now that the plane was quiet.

_*Flashback*_

_“How do we get in?” Rogue asked, looking at the security guards. “I think that we can get past them, but we’ll have to be quiet,” she looked at Blob wearily._

_“Yo, why don’t you just do your thing?” Toad suggested. “Get past ’em that way. Ain’t that point of havin’ them powers?”_

_Rogue was shocked that she hadn’t thought of that. Wasn’t that the entire reason for her joining them? So she could use her powers? Rogue looked herself over before pulling off a glove and flirtatiously walking over to the guard. “Bit chilly in ’ere, ain’ it?” she batted her eyelashes as she’d seen Kitty do so many times. “Care to warm me up?”_

_He took the bait, touching Rogue’s hand. Suddenly veins raced up his skin, and he slumped over, unconscious. All of his memories rushed at her, and it took a second of focus to shove his psych back into her mind. “He’s out,” she announced._

_“That was…” Lance looked at her with an eyebrow raised as Rogue pulled her gloves back one. “Not something I wanted to see.”_

_“You told me to absorb him. Ah did. What’s the big deal?” Rogue asked as she unlocked the door to the room with the information on the Friends of Humanity._

_*End of Flashback*_

Rogue opened her eyes to Mystique shaking her shoulders. “Get up, we’re there,” Rogue stood up, looking outside at the landscape.

“What’s the plan now?” she asked. She knew that they were going to a hotel, but beyond that, Mystique hadn’t said.

“Just wait. We still have lots of planning to do,” Mystique said simply, exiting the plane.

It was times like this that Rogue wished that Mystique was more motherly. That was one of the reasons for joining her cause. But she couldn’t blame her, Mystique had a lot of work to do. So many things to accomplish before they got the luxury of being a family. Once they had the rights they deserved, then they could be family.

_*Flashback*_

_“Yo, guys, look at this!” Toad called them into the living room. On the news was gruesome pictures of the New York Sewer System, with Morlock blood and bodies lining it._

_“The attack on the mutants in the sewer is but the latest of a series of attacks against mutant kind, but by far the most violent,” the news woman was explaining. “Before this, any attacks were purely verbal. The Friends of Humanity themselves stated, ‘this wasn’t an attack on people, it was an attack on mutants. These mutants posed a threat to humanity, so we should not be chasing the people who did this, but thanking them for helping us protect our children.’ They have been met with much controversy to this, with sympathizers arguing that they were still people. Whatever the side on this, the authorities are still worried that there is a mass murderer at large. They hope to-”_

_Rogue flipped the channel, not wanting to see anymore of that. “That’s why we need to keep fighting,” Mystique said from behind them. Rogue jumped, she hadn’t heard her come down. “Because they can kill dozens of us, but because we look different, because we’re more powerful than them, it will always be a debate on whether or not we thank them.”_

_“We’ll show them not to mess with us!” Blob pounded his fist into his hand._

_“One step at a time, Blob,” Mystique chastised the large mutant. “One step at a time.”_

_*End of Flashback*_

**Commercial Break**

_Boston International Airport_

Carol Danvers was a busy woman. She hadn’t had any spare time in months, maybe even longer than that. S.H.I.E.L.D. always kept her busy, as did her...extracurricular work. Still, it was always nice to have a moment of relaxation, even if every time she closed her eyes she saw a pile of reports due tomorrow for S.H.I.E.L.D. or another villain trying to destroy a metropolitan city. And if they didn’t take a day off, neither could she.

Carol hoped that she would be able to catch a few minutes of rest, but things never worked out like that for her. Her eyes were only closed for a few moments when the plane started beeping and going haywire, tipping downwards. Her eyes flew open, and she flew forward, ripping the pilot den’s door off of its hinges. A girl with white stripes in her hair was touching the pilot on the back of his neck, and when she pulled away, his head lolled with unconsciousness.

_My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark by Fall Out Boy plays over next few scenes_

“Ah don’ wanna hurt you,” the girl warned with a Southern Accent. “All ah want is those anti-mutant files. But if ya try to stop me, ah will.”

Carol lunged at the girl, flying and pulling her out of the pilot’s area and into the back of the plane. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, kid,” the only files she had were for S.H.I.E.L.D., nothing to do with anti-mutant.

Why would a mutant have anti-mutant papers? Rogue thought to herself. This woman had to be a mutant, she was practically flying and her strength was something that Rogue had never seen before. “Knock her out, Rogue!” Mystique ordered over the intercom. Rogue yanked her gloves off, pressing her hands against the blonde woman’s face.

Except she didn’t go unconscious right away like people usually did. She continued to fight against Rogue, her thoughts bleeding into Rogue’s own mind. It felt as if this woman-who Rogue could now see was named Carol Danvers, aka Ms. Marvel-was ripping her way into Rogue’s head, and it hurt like hell. “It hurts!” Rogue cried out. “Ah wanna let go!”

“No! You must hold on,” Mystique shouted. “Do not let go!”

“But Mama-” Rogue broke off her plea with a scream as the full front of Carol’s personality broke its way into her mind. “Why do ah have to hold on?” Rogue sobbed.

Carol’s attempts at fighting back were growing weaker and weaker by the second. Rogue had never touched someone for this long, it had to have been a minute, maybe more. Finally Carol fell limp, completely drained, her pulse weak and her breathing scarce. Rogue let go of her, panting and shaking, and spoke into her intercom. “Ah think-ah think ah killed her,” she whispered.

_*Flashback*_

_“Help!” Rogue screamed, pushing herself away from Cody, who was lying on her bed, dark veins on his face. He looked like he was dead. Rogue clutched her hands to herself, not wanting to risk touching him nor her parents who had burst into the room._

_“What happened?” her mother asked, then shrieked when she saw Cody._

_“Ah-ah just touched him!” Rogue began to cry. What was wrong with him? “And he collapsed!” her mother moved as if to comfort Rogue, but she yanked away. “Don’ touch me!” she screamed._

_Rogue stayed in that position as the paramedics arrived, taking him away from the room and to a hospital. They said it looked like he was in a coma. Once they left, her mother cast her one more sad look before disappearing downstairs. Her father, however, stayed, looking at her like she was a disappointment._

_“You did that to the poor boy?” his voice was eerily quiet, giving of a frightening tone. “You did that?”_

_Slowly and scared, Rogue nodded. “It was an accident. Ah didn’t mean to.”_

_Her father stared at her for what felt like forever. “You’re a mutant,” he spat. “A filthy mutant!” Rogue winced, her hands tucked tightly into her pockets._

_“It’s not somethin’ that ah could choose!” she defended herself._

_“Ah won’ have a mutant in this house!” he shouted, stomping his foot. “You can either leave tonight, or ah’m callin’ the system.”_

_Rogue stood up to her full height, stalking past him and packing a bag. Once she packed all of her essentials and all of the money she had, she pulled on a pair of gloves, and headed out the door. As she waited by the side of the road for a car, she promised herself she would never use her powers unless she had to. Not all mutants were horrible. Rogue could at least prove that to herself._

_*End of Flashback*_

Once the pilot came to, he quickly landed the plane in the middle of a field. “What the hell happened?” he swore. “Where’s Ms. Danvers?”

Rogue looked behind herself. Mystique wasn’t there yet. “Go check on her. Take her to a hospital. She’s in the back of the plane.”

The pilot stared at her strangely before rushing back to the plain.

**Commercial Break**

_Fix You by Coldplay plays until End Credits_

Mystique landed in the form of a raven and then shifted into her blue form. “The others are at the airplane base. We have a while to get away from here before the pilot can make contact with the base. Did you absorb all of her powers?”

Carol’s memories were flashing vividly before Rogue’s eyes. She closed her eyes for a moment, shoving it to the back of her mind as she always did. Finally she opened her eyes, looking at Mystique as if she was just seeing her for the first time. “You- you're not asking about the papers. You knew that she didn’ have ’em, didn’ you?”

“I knew that you wouldn’t go along with the plan if you knew the truth,” Mystique admitted with pride.

“You lied,” Rogue accused.

“All I wanted is more power for you. You will have all of her powers, strength, the ability to fly, invulnerability. I only want the best-” Mystique started to explain, but Rogue cut her off.

“Ah never wanted to kill someone! You betrayed me, you lied. Ah told you, when ah absorb someone for even a second ah have their personality, their mind inside my own!” Rogue threw her hands up in the air. “And now ah’ve absorbed all of her. Ah-ah can hear her!”

“And we’ll work past this!” Mystique assured her. “It isn’t the end of the world. Now, you’re just more powerful-”

“Is that all ah am to you?” Rogue asked. “Power? Ah’m your daughter.”

Rogue clutched her head, wanting to rip her hair out. Carol was shouting at her. It took everything she had to force Carol back even further into her mind. “Rogue-” Mystique reached out to her, but Rogue took a step away.

“No. Just-” Rogue continued to back away. “Leave me alone.”

Rogue suddenly lifted up, soaring through the air and away from Mystique.

_The Mansion, Westchester New York_

“Have you talked to Regina?” Jean asked Ororo as she cleaned up the mess in the kitchen from dinner. “I know the whole thing with Rin has been hard on her.”

“I tried, but I am afraid that she’s locked herself in her room. She won’t let anyone talk to her,” Ororo sighed. “It really is sad. Sometimes I just wish we-”

Ororo was interrupted by a series of rough and frantic knocks on the door. Jean and Ororo cast each other confused looks, then went to open the door.

On the other side was Rogue, her hair messed up and dirty, her eyes red and tearstained, with a slight tremor to her whole body. “Ah-ah know that y’all probably hate me, but ah-ah need-ah wanna come back,” her voice lowered to a whisper. “Please.”

**End Credits**

Promo for next episode, ‘Earthshaker’:

The Mansion gets a visit from a Mutant who makes Kitty’s life complicated again, Rogue discovers dangerous side effects from her time with Mystique **.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY  
> FInally she's back. This chapter was the hardest to write. I need to go back to having to plots at once, not enough to write about.


	10. Earthshaker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This episode's promo:  
> The Mansion get's a visit from a mutant that makes Kitty's life complicated again, Rogue discovers dangerous side effects from her time with Mystique.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:  
> Hello again! Sorry for the long time between posts, but dance has started up again, as have most of my shows, and I've had a lot of homework lately. Also, I've begun to watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. , so I've been busy with that. Because of this it might be a while before I post again. Sorry. I try to stay active but fall is just really busy.  
> Anywho, this story's setup is based off of ARogueGambit's Mutant High:Revolutionary, so yeah. Go read it if you haven't already.  
> Enjoy!

**Season One, Episode Ten**

**Earthshaker**

_In the Mansion_

“I-what?” Ororo stuttered. She was surprised to see the young girl, she had made her point quite clear when she left. “What is going on?”

“Ah-something happened, and ah realized,” Rogue swallowed. “Ah made a mistake. Ah can understand that if you don’ want me, ah literally joined the enemy, but-”

“Are you okay?” Jean asked, moving to put her arm on Rogue’s arm, but she flinched away more than usual.

“Somethin’ just happened. Ah don’ wanna talk about it,” she mumbled. “Can ah come back or not?”

“Rogue?” Logan asked, walking into the kitchen. Rogue looked down, ashamed.

“Logan. Ah-ah’m sorry for what ah said. Ah didn’t mean what ah said, ah was just angry that y’all lied to me about Mystique. But ah shouldn’t of just left. All ah did was make things worse,” she wouldn’t meet his eyes, and her face was red with shame.

You don’t belong here! Carol seethed inside her head, louder than usual, and Rogue felt the urge to look behind her. You’re a killer. Look what you did to me. You took everything. Rogue pressed Carol even more tight against the back of her mind.

Suddenly she was engulfed in a hug. Logan had never been the sentimental type, but Rogue was glad to see that he, who was like a father to her and certainly better than her mother, had at least forgiven her. “Glad to see you cleared your head, kid.”

Rogue hugged him back, smiling a little. She was still shaking from having an entire conscious shoved into her mind, and her muscles were pulsing strangely, which was probably an after effect of what happened with Ms. Marvel, but knowing that he didn’t hate her, when he probably should have, helped things all the same.

Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young)

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

Colin Ford as Avalanche

_In the Girl’s Hallway_

“What’s today’s date?” Jubilee asked suddenly, stopping in the middle of the hallway.

“I think it’s...the thirtieth,” Kitty counted on her fingers. “Yeah.”

Jubilee looked to the door just to the left of her. “It’s been a week since the whole thingy with Rin. And Regina hasn’t left her room once.”

Kitty sighed. “You’re right. This is going to far,” she walked over to the door, knocking on it gently. “Regina? Are you in there?” she phased her head in through the door. Regina was lying on her bed, headphones on her ears and the curtains drawn. Sheet music was scattered on the floor of her room, and she was facing away from the door. “Regina?” Kitty, repeated, louder.

Regina turned towards the door, looking at Kitty. Standing up, she ripped off her headphones and turned to the young mutant. “If I wasn’t answering, that means I want to be left alone.”

“Regina, you can’t stay alone in here for this long. We can talk about this,” Kitty started.

“I said get OUT!” Regina shouted, and suddenly some unknown force shoved Kitty back through the door and the mirror on Regina’s wall cracked.

“Since when could she do that?” Kitty asked as she looked to Jubilee. “She literally pushed me through the door, and she was on the bed.”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s more of her powers coming in?” Jubilee suggested.

“Yeah, maybe. I mean, her power is basically breaking stuff, so she probably  sends mental forces out to shatter things. So when her emotions are all, like, screwed up like this, her mental blasts are pushing other objects, too. Not just glass,” Kitty reasoned. “Kinda cool, when you think about it. If she learned to control it enough, she could, like, be a telekinetic.”

“I think that we should, like, talk to the Professor about her,” Jubilee announced. “I know she’s upset, we all are, but that isn’t a reason to, like, lock herself away.”

Kitty nodded, about to speak when suddenly Bobby ran up to them from the other end of the hall. “Rogue’s back!” he exclaimed, breathless.

“What?” Jubilee’s mouth dropped open. “Where is she?”

“In the Professor’s office,” Bobby responded “Apparently she showed up about an hour ago, and asked to come back. I only saw her for a second before she disappeared into the Professor’s office.”

“Did you, like, talk to her?” Kitty asked in a rushed voice, already moving down to the stairs to wait for her to leave the Professor’s office.

“No. She wouldn’t even meet my eyes. She looked like she fell off a cliff or something,” Bobby shrugged. “I don’t think I would know what to say, I mean-are we still mad at her? She did leave us for the Brotherhood.”

“Yeah…” Jubilee chewed her lip. “I don’t know. I mean...I kinda am, but I sort of understand why she left. But still, she didn’t even say goodbye. What do you think?” she asked Kitty.

“We haven’t even talked to her yet. I think that we should, like, probably wait to judge whether or not we’re mad at her,” Kitty suggested.

“I think that you’re right,” Bobby agreed. “Let’s go see what she’s been up to.”

**Commercial Break**

_In Regina’s room_

Regina listened to the three other mutants walking away, pulling her headphones over her ears again, disappearing into her music.

_Nightingale by Demi Lovato plays over next few scenes_

Stupid, stupid girl. Images of the bloodshed that she’d seen that night flashed across her mind, and she opened her eyes, focusing on the ceiling design instead. To everyone else, they thought that she was overreacting, that she only was this upset because they were roommates. They didn’t know, nothing. They didn’t know about the whispered conversations in the dead of the night, about how Rin would comfort Regina when she woke up with a cold sweat as memories of her family and all of that shit came flooding back at her.

They didn’t know about that and so much more. So many other secrets that Regina would never tell anyone.

_*Flashback*_

_Regina stormed into the Mansion, tears streaming down her face. “Professor!” she screamed out into the air. “Professor, where are you?”_

_“Regina, what happened?” he asked, rolling in from his office. “Are you okay?”_

_“There was this-this killing spree in the Morlock tunnels! Rin, she was hurt-” Regina choked back a sob. “They took her in the ambulance but once we got to the hospital they said that I couldn’t go in with them because I was underage and I needed to call a parent or guardian but I didn’t know her parents number-” Regina took a deep breath before continuing. “And my phone died so I ran back here and I just-” cracks spread across the windows on the door. “I don’t know what to do!”_

_“I see,” he folded his hands, thinking it through. “I think that it would be best if you went in your room and went to bed. It’s getting late. I am going to the hospital to work things out with the doctors and see what’s going on, and I’ll also need to alert her parents. I promise that tomorrow we can go see her.”_

_“TOMORROW?” the glass completely broke away. “I’m not going to leave her alone there for that long. Let me come with you, please, just-”_

_“Regina, I know you’re upset, but you have to stay here,” now his voice was more ordering, and Regina realized that she had no other choice but to stay there._

_In the Hospital_

_“This is her room,” the Professor stopped right outside Rin’s hospital room with Regina. “Be careful. She’s still being monitored closely. She’s still asleep right now, she might not want any visitors.”_

_“Whatever. I know, just let me- let me see her,” Regina opened the door, going into Rin’s room._

_The young girl had a tube thing under her nose, as well as several other machines attached. The heart monitor beeped steadily, and Rin’s eyes fluttered, opening as she saw Regina. Smiling, she pushed herself weakly up to a sitting position. Regina noted that there was a blood bag attached to her arm. They’d given her a transfusion. “Regina!” she exclaimed. “I was worried when you weren’t here when I woke up. I can’t remember much about what happened, they keep asking me what I remember but I don’t know!”_

_“It’s okay,” Regina assured her. “I had to get the Professor and he wouldn’t let me go see you until now.”_

_Just as she said that, the Professor wheeled in to the hospital room. “Regina, could you give Miss Conair and I a moment alone?”_

_Regina started to argue, but looked at Rin for a moment, who was smiling assuredly. “It’s not like I’m going anywhere,” she shrugged helplessly._

_“Okay. But I’ll be right back,” Regina stepped right outside the door, going to the vending machine to get a pack of gum. She stopped outside the door, watching Rin’s expression from outside. Rin looked sad, but she was nodding along with whatever the Professor was saying. When the Professor headed out towards the door, Regina stepped out of his way. Once he’d cleared through the door frame, she moved to go back in there, but the Professor stopped her._

_“Regina, can we speak for a moment before you go back in there?” he asked in a gentle voice._

_“What is it?” she asked, worried._

_“Earlier I spoke to her doctors. She’s doing as good as can be expected, but there’s still a lot of danger,” he started._

_“So? I know her, she’s pulled through worse,” Regina argued._

_“Yes, I know. And I believe that she will get better in time, too,” the Professor sighed. “She will be going in for surgery tomorrow-”_

_“Surgery?!” Regina shouted. “Why the hell would she need surgery?”_

_“During the attack she shattered a rib. They’ll be fixing that up. There is risk-” Regina looked as if she was going to interrupt, but he pressed on. “But no more than any other surgery.”_

_“So why are you acting so-like that?” Regina didn’t understand. What was going on?_

_“She won’t be having the surgery here,” was she going to come back to the Med Lab? “They’re moving her tonight to a hospital in Orange Beach, Alabama. One close to her home.”_

_“What are you saying?” Regina’s voice shook, and the windows began to crack._

_“She won’t be coming back to the Mansion. Her parents were...upset with the number of accidents she had been in since arriving and believe that we’re just putting her in more danger. Once she leaves...none of us are to have contact with her again,” the Professor explained sadly. Now Regina understood why he was so upset, not just because of Rin’s condition, but because he always hated failing students._

_“Can I...can I say goodbye?” Regina asked, her eyes wet._

_“Of course,” the Professor nodded._

_Regina stepped into the hospital room slowly, not wanting to let loose all of the emotions bundled up inside of her and destroy the hospital. “The Professor told me what’s going on.”_

_“Kind of upsetting. I’m trying to stay positive about it. I have friends there, I guess…” Rin twiddled her fingers. “And I miss my parents, so I’ll get to see them.”_

_“So? You have more friends here. We’d all miss you if you left. Tell your parents that you don’t want to go!” Regina exclaimed._

_“They wouldn’t listen to me. I don’t really have another choice. Besides, I’m not in the position to argue,” Rin shrugged, looking upset._

_“You’re not a fighter like that. You do good, but not...not like that,” Regina bit her lip._

_“I guess that I’ll always be the damsel in distress. But that’s okay. Where I’m going… I won’t need to be that much of a fighter,” Rin looked like she was clinging onto the little bit of hope that she had, but not very well._

_“Maybe one day, when we’re older…” Regina almost stopped herself, but then continued. “We could continue. Where we left off. But until then…”_

_Rin nodded. “Yeah. I know what you’re saying.”_

_The Professor wheeled in again, this time with a nurse. “Girls, I am afraid that it’s time to break up this goodbye. They need to start preparing Rin to be moved.”_

_“Bye,” Rin smiled softly._

_“Adios,” Regina said, looking down as she left._

_*End of Flashback*_

Regina would never know what happened to her. Maybe Rin had died in surgery. Maybe she was going home, adjusting herself into her old life again. Regina had tried to call her but Rin’s parents hung up. At this point, she wasn’t even angry anymore. She just felt empty, and Regina wasn’t even sure why.

**Commercial Break**

_In the Professor’s Office_

“And Mystique forced me to absorb her,” Rogue concluded softly. “Ah really don’t want ta talk ’bout it.”

“Thank you Rogue,” the Professor had tried to do a brief scan of her mind to see whether or not her intentions were good, but her mind was so cluttered-even more so than usual-he couldn’t get anything from her. “I do believe that you are being honest, but I hope you can understand the decision that I have to make here.”

Rogue nodded sadly, biting her lip. If he’s smart then he’ll kick you out, murderer, Carol seethed. “Ah know what you’re tryin’ to say. Ah completely agree if ya’ wanna kick me out, ah did betray everyone.”

“No, Rogue, I would never turn away a mutant in need. You’ll be on probation for two weeks, but after that it will be as if you never left. Provided that you hold up you end of the deal,” the Professor assured her.

“Thank you,” Rogue smiled.

The Professor paused for a moment before asking her what he wanted to. “Rogue, I sense that there’s something that you aren’t telling me. I understand if you don’t want to, but sometimes it’s healthier to tell someone than keeping it in.”

“Nothin’,” Rogue shrugged. “Ah’m alright.”

The Professor could tell she was lying, but just nodded along. “If you insist. I believe that some of your friends are awaiting you outside, you may go.”

A new rush of nervousness ran through her at the thought of facing them. She couldn’t face Bobby when she first went into the Office, she knew that they would hate her. She hated her. As soon as she stepped out the door, she was bombarded by Jubilee, Kitty, and Bobby.

“Rogue!” Jubilee smiled brightly. “You’re back!”

“What happened?” Kitty asked curiously. “Why did you change your mind?”

“Ah-” Oh nothing, I just killed someone and I wanted to come so I wouldn’t have to think about the fact that I stole someone’s life like the leech I am, Carol replied sadistically inside her head. “The Brotherhood was horrible. Ah didn’t realize what they were like, what horrible things they did. My mother-Mystique, she didn’t even care for me. Just mah powers.”

Kitty realized then that she completely forgave her friend. She just wanted her family. Even if she, like, completely went the wrong way to get it. “I, like, get it. I mean, you shouldn’t have left like that, and that was, like, a completely horrible idea, but I get it,” Rogue looked down in shame. Kitty gently put a hand on her arm. “Hey, it’s okay. Just remember that you don’t have to go over there to find your family. We’re your family.”

Jubilee pulled Rogue and Kitty into a hug, being careful not to touch her skin, all the while Bobby watched from the side, awkward. “Rogue,” a cajun voice spoke from the side. “You're back.”

Rogue pulled away from her two friends. “Gambit. Long time no see,” she smiled a little bit, but in all honesty, she had absolutely no idea what to say. Luckily-or maybe not so much-she was spared anything else when someone equally as annoying and cocky walked through the door.

“Hello Kitty-cat,” Lance winked at Kitty. “Didja miss me?”

**Commercial Break**

“Lance?” Kitty exclaimed, her eyes widening. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, the Brotherhood is being more aggravating than usual, and I figured that if Rogue could walk out of there and into here, why can’t I?” Lance smiled, knocking on the Professor’s door. “Guess I’ll have to talk to him first. Then you can show me to my room.”

“Lance…” Kitty started, suspicious. “Why are you really here? The X-Men is a lot different than the Brotherhood.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You guys are good, we’re not, blah blah blah. And you guys are less inclined towards injuring people to get what you want. Aside from that, I think I can manage,” he winked at Kitty again before disappearing into the Professor’s office.

“Well that just happened,” Bobby spoke at last.

Jean walked down the hall, intending to speak to the Professor about Lance, whom she’d just sensed come into the Mansion, but instead was greeted by a flock of students waiting by the door. “Guys!” Jean exclaimed. “What are you doing out here?”

“Nothin’,” Rogue shrugged. “Ah was just leavin’ from talkin’ to the Professor and Lance walked in.”

“Alright,” Jean glanced at the door for a moment. “Why don’t you guys go and get ready for bed? You have school and an early morning Danger Room session tomorrow.”

“I don’t know which one sounds worse,” Bobby laughed as he headed back to his room. “I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Bright and early.”

“Bright and early,” Rogue hadn’t forgotten about the Danger Room sessions-they were very hard to-but that didn’t mean that they were something that she had looked forward to before she left. But now...her muscles still had a weird tingly feeling, and she was itching to use them. Kitty and Jubilee waved goodnight, disappearing up the hall and into their rooms to take a shower, leaving Rogue alone with Gambit.

“So ya couldn’t stay away,” Gambit smiled at Rogue. “Should’a known dat Gambit’s charms were workin’ better dan you were lettin’ on.”

“In yer dreams,” Rogue smirked. “Didja miss me?”

“Was a lot more borin’ ’round ’ere withoutcha. Do have to admit dat,” Gambit nodded. “Not dat dis place ever don’ have excitement goin’ on.”

“Aww cajun, ah’m touched,” replied Rogue sarcastically.

“Anytime, chère,” his lowered ever so slightly, causing blush to rise to Rogue’s cheeks.

“Good lord, and here ah had nearly forgotten about that little hobby of yours,” Rogue chuckled to herself as she slowly headed to her room, Gambit following behind.

“So…” Gambit trailed off for a second. “What did make you leave da Brotherhood?”

Rogue froze for a second. Go on, tell him. Tell him that your mommy made you a murderer so you came running back to the people who you abandoned. Carol whispered in her mind. “Ah-uh-” Rogue swallowed. “It’s a long story. Lots of little things.”

Gambit noticed her pause, but he didn’t push. The last thing that he wanted was an angry southern girl plotting his demise. “Alright den, your choice,” then he added. “But if ya ever wanna talk ’bout it-”

“Ah know,” Rogue nodded. “Night, Gambit,” she said, closing the door to her old room. Inside, she noticed with sentiment that they had kept most of her stuff the same. For emotional reasons or because they hadn’t gotten around to cleaning it out, it still felt good to know that they hadn’t forgotten her. She stripped to pajamas and literally jumped onto the bed-don’t judge, the Brotherhood beds weren’t nearly as comfortable-and was surprised when it bent down under her weight a lot more than it should have. If anything Rogue should’ve been lighter-the food was never as filling there-but it creaked under her. Shrugging, Rogue put it to the back of her mind, trying to fall asleep.

_In Kitty’s Room_

Kitty had finally fallen asleep, despite part of her wanting to stay up and text, but the peaceful slumber didn’t last for long. There was a knocking at her door, quiet at first, but then it grew louder when she didn’t answer. Finally she stood up, half asleep still, and phased her head through the door. “Who is it?” she grumbled, then her eyes opened a little wider when she saw Lance. “Lance? What are you doing here?”

“Well, the Professor said that I could stay, so I’m finding my room,” he grinned.

Kitty looked at her alarm clock, then back to him. “At one o’clock in the morning? You got here at eight. What have you been doing these past four hours?”

“Technically it’s twelve forty-eight. And I was exploring. So where do I get to sleep?” Lance asked.

“Not in here! This is the girl’s wing!” Kitty dragged him out of her room and out into the hall. “How about this-I’ll, like, take you to the boys wing, where you’ll probably share a room with Kurt.”

“Actually,” Lance corrected her. “The Professor said that I’m on ‘probation’ for now and I’d be staying in a guest bedroom.”

“Did he?” Kitty raised an eyebrow. “Alright. Then I’ll, like, take you to the guest rooms.”

“It’s nice here,” Lance commented.

“Yeah, I like it,” Kitty nodded.

“Certainly better than the Brotherhood. I can see why Rogue made such a big fuss about it being clean, she has high standards,” Lance nodded appreciatively.

“Where were you before this?” Kitty asked. “I mean, like, before the Brotherhood.”

Lance shifted his weight uncomfortably. “It depends. I was in Foster homes for a while, and the most recent one before this was in Chicago.”

“I remember that,” exclaimed Kitty. “You went to my school. You and your friends were always selling test answers and vandalizing the lockers.”

“Yeah,” he laughed. “It was fun there. I mean, school still sucked, it’s school, but it was fun knowing that you could do pretty much whatever you wanted and get away with it.”

They arrived at the guest rooms in an uncomfortable silence. “Welp…” Kitty trailed off. “Here it is.”

“Thanks,” he said, switching the duffle bag that Kitty hadn’t noticed to his other shoulder. “See ya in training, Kitty-cat.”

A smirk fell upon Kitty’s face as she imagined him at training the next day. With Logan. She laughed, then disappeared back into her room.

_In the Kitchen_

Matt snuck out once he was sure that Daniel was asleep. Not that it was hard, the other boy was a really heavy sleeper. Heading down into the kitchen he looked through the leftovers of that night’s dinner. Lots of people were wondering why Rin’s...leaving affected Regina more than him. It’s not that it didn’t affect him, but he and Regina had different ways of showing it. Regina was more dramatic, and she chose to wallow in her sorrows. Matt, on the other hand, had just locked them away. He knew that Rin would be safer far away from the Mansion. He had protected her while he could, just like promised himself he would, but in the end he agreed with Rin’s parents more than anyone else. She seemed to have a knack for getting into trouble here, and it was just safer for her if she didn’t come back.

But he would still miss her. The place seemed...gloomy without her.

Finally he settled on just having an apple-the other students always ate all of the dinner without having any leftovers-and dropped it in shock when it rotted in his hand, falling to the floor.

“Shadow?” he asked, looking around. “Where are you?”

This time, she didn’t reply. He turned back to pick up the apple and throw it away-it really was disgusting-when he noticed that all of them were rotten. And they didn’t look normal, either. They looked black, there was no trace of color left.

Putting the apple in the trash, Matt looked around the kitchen one last time before heading back up to his room empty handed.

**Commercial Break**

_In the Danger Room_

Around six thirty in the morning, everyone was lined up and ready for the morning Danger Room session. Well, super tired, but they were there, and that’s what counted.

Lance was shocked at the fact that he had to wake up that early. “It’s unhealthy!” he exclaimed to Kitty, who was slowly but surely making her way to Piotr and Jubilee. “I need my rest.”

“No one can argue with that,” Kitty agreed. “You need, like, all the beauty sleep that you can get.”

“Haha. Pick on the new guy. I see how it is,” said Lance sarcastically.

“Pick on the new guy is one of my favorite games,” Logan replied, causing all of the class to look in his direction. “I’ve got my eye on you, Alvers,” he growled.

“I just want to be a part of the team. You let her back on the team without giving her a hard time,” he said, pointing to Rogue. “Why am I any different?”

Rogue glared at him, about to open her mouth and say some very unladylike words, but Logan answered first. “Because she earned our trust first. Everyone do five laps around the room before we get started.”

They all collectively groaned, but started running none the less. Once the five laps were over, they all bent over on their knees, panting, except for Gambit, Piotr, and surprisingly, Rogue. Her muscles still felt tingly, but it was better working them off.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Lance reasoned.

“Is that a challenge?” Logan narrowed his eyes, a gleeful look on his face.

“Um…” Lance looked to Kitty and Jubilee, who were sighing in defeat already.

“Today’s session is to not die,” Logan stated boldly.

“What?” Kitty squeaked.

“Don’t worry, you won’t actually be in danger. The simulation is set so you’ll just get a little shock when you would’ve died. Watch each other’s back. Try to take out the simulation. Those who don’t last the session will get dish duty tonight after dinner,” he smiled again. “Let’s get this going.”

He left the gymnasium like room, heading up to the control panel. “Should I be afraid?” Lance asked.

“Very,” Kitty nodded as the electricity whirred and the simulation started up.

It started easy. Small guns that shot at them, easily taken out with a few cards courtesy of Gambit. Then it got harder. Rocks were launched at them from the ground, which Lance was able to take out, and Jubilee and Gambit managed to combine their forces to take out some of the guns that were up on the edges. When the Danger Room started throwing small boulders, that’s when it became a problem.

Kitty was able to phase herself and anyone nearby through most of them, but she couldn’t do everyone. The Danger Room was set up so it adjusted to your strengths and weaknesses. So the longer you were in it, the harder it got. As soon as it became obvious that the boulders were the hardest part, it launched more.

“Dis seems more like a ‘throw everything in sight’ plan den an actual plan!” Gambit noted as he ran out of cards and switched to his bo staff.

“Ah have to agree with the Cajun,” Rogue nodded. “What’s their motive?” the more she fought, the stronger she felt. She had figured that the night before’s unaccounted for strength was from Ms. Marvel, but usually by now it was all worn out, or at least hard to access. But it felt as strong as ever, which was starting to worry her.

“Maybe we should split into groups?” Piotr suggested. “One of us can go and take out the larger snipers while the other of us can protect from the smaller guns?”

Everyone exchanged quick glances, then nodded collectively. “Seems like as good of a plan as any.”

Kitty and Jubilee teamed up, with Kitty phasing them through and Jubilee blowing up the rocks. Piotr and Bobby worked together, Piotr smashing the rocks in the way and Bobby taking out the larger snipers. Gambit charged smaller rocks around him, blowing up the rocks around him as Kurt teleported to them to the actual guns, Gambit blowing them up. Matt and Daniel were working interestingly, Daniel taking out the guns and Matt...not really doing much aside from pointing out when a boulder was about to fall on him.

“Kitty!” Rogue yelled suddenly. A very large boulder was falling towards her, and before she could even think to phase through it, Rogue had launched herself at her, catching the boulder like it weighed nothing and throwing it across the room. Everyone stared at her for a moment, the training session forgotten, until Kitty finally said something.

“Rogue...how did you do that? Throw it like that? And, like, how did you get over here so fast?” she asked.

Rogue looked at Kitty, then at everyone else. “Ah dunno...ah-” suddenly she stopped clutching her head and falling to her knees. She let out a bloodcurdling scream as everyone rushed over to see what was wrong and Logan stopped the training session.

“Chère!” Gambit exclaimed, bending down to her level. “Can you hear me?”

For a second her eyes opened, but something was different, it didn’t see like her. Like someone else had grabbed ahold of the steering wheel. Then they closed again as Rogue clutched her head, a rush of memories flooding in.

It was Carol. Rogue knew it. She finally had broken free from the tiny little prison in her mind. Rogue tried to push her back hopelessly, but it didn’t work. She was going to have to ask the Professor for help. Which meant explaining everything, telling them how she had become everything she’d always promised herself that she wouldn’t be. And they would very well kick her out. Well, it was time to pay the piper.

**Commercial Break**

_In Jubilee’s room_

_Bittersweet Tragedy by Melanie Martinez plays until End Credits_

“And here things were calming down. I should’ve known that it wouldn’t last,” Jubilee laughed nervously.

“Yeah. It’s like, when it’s calm it feels weird,” Kitty agreed. “Hey, can I, like, ask you a question?”

“Sure!” Jubilee scooted over to where Kitty was sitting. “What’s up?”

“What do you think about Lance?” she asked, biting her lip.

“What do you mean?” Jubilee asked, considering this. “I mean, he’s a bit of a bad boy, and I don’t think that he’s going to stay here for much longer. This doesn’t really seem like his sort of thing.”

“Yeah,” Kitty nodded. “Do you, like, think that he’s good looking?”

“A little bit, I suppose,” Jubilee answered. “OHMYGOD!” she exclaimed all of a sudden. “You have a crush on him, don’t you?”

Kitty blushed deep red. “No! Of course not. I’m, like, with Piotr, who is super sweet and awesome. I was just, like, wondering about your opinion.”

“I think that you should stay with Piotr,” she said earnestly. “Lance will probably leave by the end of the week, and Piotr really cares for you. All of you.”

“All...of me?” Kitty asked.

“You know, your personality. Not just your...feminine parts,” Jubilee giggled.

“You're right,” Kitty nodded. “I’m with Piotr. I don’t even know why I’m giving Lance a second thought. Thanks, Jubilee.”

“Anytime, chica,” Jubilee hugged her.

“So, what’s the deal with Rogue?” Kitty asked. “I, like, tried to go and see her, but the Professor said that she was just having some problems with her powers and that he was going to help her. Do you think it has something to do with her time with Mystique?”

Jubilee shrugged. “Maybe. She won’t even talk about what she had to do with her. I guess we won’t know until the Professor or Rogue tells us.”

“Yeah. But after Rogue’s all good, you know what we need to do?” Kitty spoke with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“What?” Jubilee’s eyes soon shared the glint as all the excitement of whatever caught on to her.

“We need to set up Rogue and Gambit. This whole secretly, or well, like, not so secretly in Gambit’s case, pining for each other thing is getting a little bit ridiculous,” Kitty rubbed her hands together.

“You, are one hundred percent right, chica,” Jubilee replied.

_Outside Jubilee’s room_

Lance leaned against the wall, mulling over what he had just heard. He was going to bother Kitty again, but he had heard her in this room and couldn’t resist overhearing their conversation. So Rogue didn’t tell them about her time with Ms. Marvel...this would be interesting. But not nearly as interesting as what Kitty had said. She found him attractive. Even if she wasn’t going to admit it, she did. That, Lance decided, he could work with.

_End Credits_

_Promo for next episode, ‘Ms. Marvel’:_

**While the Professor helps Rogue battle Ms. Marvel in her mind, Matt finally discovers the full extent of Shadow’s secrets.**


	11. Ms. Marvel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Promo for this episode:  
> While the Professor helps Rogue fight Ms. Marvel inside her mind, Matt finally discovers the full extend of Shadow's secrets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO!  
> Been a long time. Sorry, like I've said, I've been super busy.  
> First things first, this story was inspired by the amazing Aroguegambit7 's Mutant High: Revolutionary. I love it so much, and it just hit it's season finale. But they planned ahead (more than me) and had it all written ahead of time, which means they don't have the problem that I have.  
> This is the 'mid season finale' as I would like to phrase it. I am super busy with these next upcoming months, and I have a writing contest that I really need to focus on. Plus, this was as far as my plans went, so I need time to plan ahead again. Don't worry, this story is no where near over, but it's on hiatus for the moment. I am afraid that I can't say for how long. Sorry. Hopefully not too long, but I promise that I will be back by January. Until then, happy holidays!

**Season One, Episode Eleven**

**Ms. Marvel**

_In Matt’s room_

Matt laid down on the bed, exhausted and wet from his shower. He’d gotten in trouble earlier that day for ‘being an ass’ as Logan phrased it. All that had happened was he’d gotten curious about whether or not he could take away the senses of someone with enhanced senses like Logan, (he could.) Logan didn’t find it entertaining.

But because Rogue was now in the Med Lab, and the Professor was finding her mind too blocked to enter, so she was just lying there, going crazy or whatever, Logan needed something to punch. Hence, time for Matt’s Danger Room session. The clawed mutant had forced him to fight harder than he ever had. His ability wasn’t that good on a battlefield without real opponents, and Matt was less than eager to use them on Logan again.

He had just gotten dressed into shorts and was ready for bed-Daniel had decided to have a sleepover with Kurt, since Daniel had befriended the majority of the male population. That would give him the room to himself, and he could finally get some good sleep. Just before he closed his eyes, however, he heard a weird noise and some ragged breathing. Cautiously standing up, he slowly opened his bathroom door, and flipped the light on, ready to de-sense whoever it was.

Inside was a girl he’d never seen before. She had pale skin and brown hair, and was wearing a black tee shirt with jeans. “Hello. Long time no see,” she winced visibly, sitting down and leaning against the wall. He noticed for the first time deep wounds slashed into her abdomen, causing her to bleed excessively. “What?” she laughed a little before stopping for a second. “You don’t recognize me like this?” her eyes were black. Pure black, the iris, whites, all of it.

“Shadow,” he whispered. Then stepped a little closer. “Why are you like this? How’d you get hurt?”

“I was-” she stopped for a moment, trying to adjust herself but failing. “I was trying to get into the Danger Room, to do...something. Logan smelled me and slashed at where he thought it was coming from. He thought that he missed, but…” she gestured down.

“How did he not see you?” asked Matt.

“I was shadows. In a dark corner. It’s very hard to see anything when it’s like that. I make sure of it,” she says. “The point is, I need your help.”

“My help?” Matt exclaimed. “You need to go to the Med Lab.”

“No,” she shook her head. “The Professor can’t-he can’t know that I’m free.”

Matt looked back into the room, then at Shadow. “I’ll help you, but under one circumstance, or I take you to the Med Lab.”

“And what would that be?” asked Shadow.

“I want you to tell me the truth about you,” he said. “All of it.”

Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young)

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

Colin Ford as Avalanche

Candice Accola as Ms. Marvel

Kelsey Grammer as Beast

*Mackenzie Foy as Shadow

Ava Acres as Young Rogue

_In the Med Lab_

At the moment, nobody had the heart to tell Gambit to go. He was the one who had brought Rogue there, and at first when they’d arrived and Dr. McCoy had gently suggested that he should go, he acted as if he hadn’t heard him. Rogue laid still on the bed, tossing her head now and then and muttering, but aside from that nothing happened. Her screaming had stopped as they set her down, causing her to just go limp. They had her hooked up to monitors, but they were telling anything useful. The Professor had tried, unsuccessfully, to get into her head. But there was so much clutter and noise that he couldn’t.

“C’mon chère,” Gambit said under her breath as he rubbed her gloved hand. “Wake up and yell at all of us for makin’ dis big of a deal ’bout you.”

For a moment it was like she’d heard him. She relaxed, her pulse slowing down and the muttering stopping.

Then all of a sudden she was screaming again, her back arched, and she was trying to fight every single one of them. Her added strength gave her an advantage, knocking everything down. At one point her eyes opened and she shouted out, “Why are you protecting her? She’s a killer!” but as soon as she said that, she relaxed again as Dr. McCoy injected a sedative into her arm.

Gambit looked up as the door to the Med Lab opened again, Jean and Logan walking through. “What’s happening?” Logan growled.

“We don’t know, that’s just the problem,” Hank sighed.

“I heard screaming,” Jean walked over to Rogue, examining her. “Did you sedate her?”

“I’m afraid that we had to,” Hank replied. “She would’ve hurt herself or others if we didn’t.”

“Does anyone even know da full story for dis?” Gambit asked, looking up. “She wouldn’t tell Gambit when he asked.”

“Why’s Gumbo even here?” Logan growled again, moving towards Gambit.

“He was the one who brought her here, after the session,” Hank supplied.

“I know that. But why did he stay?” Logan asked, looking Gambit square in the eye.

“Logan,” chided Jean. “Gambit, how about you go ask Kitty if she can do some research on what happened? The more we know, the better.”

Gambit wanted to argue with her, but he knew that it wouldn’t do any good, especially with Logan in the room. He nodded curtly before leaving the Lab.

“I don’ trust that kid,” Logan muttered.

“Logan,” Jean warned again. “I’m going to look in her mind. See if I can get a glimpse of anything.”

“Where’s Chuck?” Logan asked, looked at the blissfully sedated body of a girl he loved like a little sister. “Shouldn’t he be down here?”

“He said that he was dealing with...an emergency. He’ll be back as soon as he can,” she assured him.

“If you say so,” he walked over to Rogue’s other side. “See anything, Jeannie?”

“Let me look,” she closed her eyes, focusing.

First there was nothing, then there were a few flashes, a blonde woman, a young girl. Suddenly there was a screaming so loud and a painful sensation that Jean couldn’t even begin to describe, forcing her out.

“Well?”

Jean bit her lip. “I-I’m not sure. I saw flashes, a blonde woman, a little girl. Not much.”

Logan looked crestfallen. “You sure there was nothing else?”

“Well…” Jean didn’t want to upset him more, but he asked and he deserved to know. “I heard screaming. Lots of it. And I felt...it felt like her mind was being ripped to pieces.”

**Commercial Break**

_In the Living Room_

“Wait-wait-what?” Kitty asked, confused. “You want me to look online and see if I can, like, find anything about who Rogue absorbed? What do I have to work with?”

“You can ask da Professor,” Gambit suggested. “Rogue probably told him ’bout it.”

“Okay,” Kitty sighed. “See ya’ later, Gambit.”

“See ya, minou,” he replied as she disappeared down the hall to the Professor’s office.

“Hey Kitty-cat,” she was ambushed halfway by none other than Lance. Of course.

“Hey Lance,” she half-smiled. “What’s up?”

“Nothin’,” he leaned against the wall, a smirk on his lips. “Just need something to do until class with the white haired lady-”

“Storm,” Kitty supplied. “Or Miss Monroe.”

“Yeah, Storm. I just need something to do until her class starts,” he said. “Know of anything fun?”

“Not here. I mean, there’s a pool, but by the time we, like, tell everyone, get changed, blah blah blah, we wouldn’t, like, have any time to actually swim,” she shrugged. “Besides, I need to look up information on the woman that Rogue absorbed for the Professor.”

“The woman that Rogue absorbed? You mean Carol Danvers?” asked Lance.

“Is that her name?” Kitty’s interest peaked. “Carol Danvers?”

“Yup,” he nodded. “Mystique took us all on a mission in Boston or something, and had Toad, Blob and I distract the base and keep them from finding out about Carol’s plane being hijacked. Rogue hitched a ride on, then tried to find some of the papers that we were trying to get. Well, thought that we were trying to get.”

“What do you mean ‘thought we were trying to get’?” Kitty narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

“I overheard Mystique talking to someone later that day on the phone. Apparently that was never the plan. They just wanted her to absorb all of that woman so she’d have all her powers forever,” Lance shrugged. “I guess she did.”

“All of her?” the gears inside Kitty’s mind were spinning. That would mean that Rogue had held on for minutes before letting go. Plus if this woman had powers-mutant or otherwise-it was likely that she had a much stronger personality, and it would explain the trouble Rogue was having controlling her. Plus, if she had indeed held on long enough for permanent transfer, she might’ve gotten a full transfer of Carol’s mind. So it wouldn’t be just an imprint, like all the other psyches, it would be a full other mind inside Rogue’s... “I’ve, like, gotta go, I think that I just understood something!”

_In Matt’s room_

“Aren’t you demanding?” she smirked. “Can’t you use your superpower to take the pain away? Or are you just being stubborn?”

Matt sighed in exasperation, then closed his eyes, focusing. For a brief second the pain disappeared, but then it came back in full throttle. “Nope. Sorry. I don’t have that much control over my powers. It’s all or nothing, so unless you want me to take them all away-”

“Don’t even think about it. I would kill you before you could think twice. Not that you’d stand much of a chance against me,” she said smugly.

“Look, I’m offering you a deal. Tell me the truth about you, about everything, and I won’t take you to the Med Lab. I’ll patch you up right here. Either take it or don’t,” he shrugged.

Shadow looked like she wanted to kill him, but she didn’t say anything. Not at first, anyway. She looked at her wound again before nodding, slowly. “If you breath a word of this you’ll be dead within the minute.”

“I’d expect nothing less,” answered Matt honestly. “Now, what do you have to say?”

_In the Med Wing_

“I’ve, like, got it!” Kitty exclaimed, phasing through the Med Lab doors. “I found out, like, everything about who Rogue absorbed.

“Kitty, that’s great!” smiled Jean. “What did you find out?”

“Well, I was talking to Lance, and he, like, told me her name and stuff. He also told me that it was all, like, some ‘master plan’ of Mystique’s to get Rogue to absorb all of her. And she did absorb all of her. So one thing that I was, like, thinking is that maybe the reason it’s like, so hard for you and the Professor to get a read on her is because there’s, like, two whole people in her!” Kitty explained, then paused before adding, “Well, two whole minds at least.”

Jean studied Rogue again for a second and then Kitty again. “That makes sense...is that background information about Carol?” she asked, referring to the papers in Kitty’s hand.

“Yeah,” she handed them over. “They explain a lot…”

Jean flipped through them, noting things here and there. Carol was a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. A specialist for them. “Here it says that her DNA is infused with Kree. That’s where she got her powers. Thank you Kitty.”

“No problem,” she smiled before phasing through the doors again.

Scott, who had joined them in the room earlier to check on how Jean was doing, stepped forward. “May I look at the files?”

“Sure,” Jean handed them to him. “I don’t really see how they can help, but it’s good to have all the information.”

“You’re right about that,” Scott nodded. “Remember when the biggest problem that we had was Bobby and John pranking us?”

Jean chuckled. “Yeah, I remember. Now it’s all...who’s trying to kill us the most?”

Scott laughed too, then kissed Jean on the forehead. “I have papers to grade, want to come with me or stay here?”

“As promising as homework sounds, I’m going to stay here for a little longer. See if I can figure something out,” she kissed him on the cheek before heading back over to where Rogue lay.

**Commercial Break**

_In Matt’s room_

Blown Away by Carrie Underwood plays over next scene

“You already know my real name for some reason,” she paused to glare at him.

“Just tell the story.”

“Whatever,” she rolled her eyes. “When I was born, for some fucked up reason, my parents left me in a ditch. Whatever. It was probably the eyes. Thought I was possessed or something. So the system found me, and even though I would’ve much rather preferred to rot and die, they took me in.”

“Wait-so you’re saying that those are your actual eyes? I just thought that you could do that with shadows for effect,” he laughed a little.

“Stupid. And why don’t you patch me up while I tell you the story? So I don’t you know, die?” snarled Shadow.

“Oh yeah. Sure,” he went over to his draw and pulled out a first aid kit. “Any better supplies would be in the Med Lab, but, you know.”

Shadow sighed before continuing on. “I stayed there until I was four. Within a week I figured out that they didn’t want me because they cared, but so it would make them look better. All in all? It was horrible. So I retaliated. Fought back. Soon everyone there respected me.”

“You mean feared you,” Matt questioned, pulling out rubbing alcohol.

“There’s a very fine line between the two,” she narrowed her eyes.

“Wait-do you have a photographic memory or something?” he asked. “And this is going to sting,” he warned as he poured the rubbing alcohol onto the wound.

“Shitshitshitshitshit,” Shadow swore. “And yes. I do. Anyway. Charles heard about me, so he and another guy named Erik came and talked to me. By the time that I was adopted, I was five and had developed the rest of my abilities. Charles thought that my...admirable personality was just a result of my situation. He talked to me, tried to get me to be a nice little girl.

“Everyone else here was a jackass. Some stared at me because of my eyes. Some talked down to me. But the worse was the people like Jean. They’d pity me, act as if I was a little toy that was about to break. I didn’t take it. At first Charles turned a blind eye. It wasn’t until I was six that he made his first warning. He basically made a threat that I assumed was empty. He’d never done anything harsh before,  I didn’t think he’d start then. In all honesty, I respected Erik much more. It wasn’t until I got my revenge on Jean that he acted,” Shadow looked up suddenly. “Have you ever lost control of your body? And I don’t mean pieces of it like seeing a pretty girl when you’re twelve, I mean like moving to a completely different room and not being able to stop yourself? That’s what Charles did to me. He went into my mind and locked me in a room downstairs. His control kept me from leaving for all those years. He taught me down there, fed me, gave me books to read, but it doesn’t matter. He took away my free will because I was bothering those that he liked more.”

“I know the Professor,” Matt paused from his wrapping. “He was there when I needed him. I don’t think that he would do something as disastrous as take away your free will because of a few harmless pranks.”

Shadow spoke in dead seriousness. “I only did what she deserved. Besides, it’s not like she suffered. Once I was locked away he erased the memories of everyone here. It’s like I never even existed.”

“So what changed? If he was making sure that you couldn’t get out until you got your personality under control, which, no offense, you haven’t, why are you out now?”

“When Mystique sabotaged Cerebro, putting Charles into a coma, it broke the connection. At least enough for me to break free,” her eyes narrowed. “And now he can’t stop me.”

_Outside the Professor’s office_

Logan knocked at the Professor’s door rapidly. “Come in, Logan,” he responded from inside.

“Chuck, what are you doing in here? I know you have other things to do, but you’ve been in here for hours and Rogue’s still in the Med Wing waiting for your assistance!” he exclaimed.

The Professor looked up from his computer and put in head in his hands. “I am sorry, Logan. I know that you care for her, as do I, but there’s just been so much going on lately-”

“What?” Logan interrupted. “What’s been going on?”

The Professor looked up, as if he was about to say something, but then Jean burst into the room. “Professor, Rogue’s woken up again,” she said, out of breath.

“What? That’s great, red!” Logan started to smile.

“No, you didn’t let me finish,” said Jean. “She’s woken up, but it’s not her. Carol’s in full control of Rogue.”

**Commercial Break**

_In the Med Lab_

“Ms. Danvers, if you would just remain calm-” Dr. McCoy raised his hands to try to keep her from attacking, but she just continued forwards.

“If you just let me go, nobody will get hurt. This is all a misunderstanding, I’ve done nothing wrong,” said Carol.

“I’m afraid that we can’t let you go, because you’re in control of one of our own students,” he spoke apologetically.

“Rogue? She killed me! But I won’t fight back, if you just let me out of here peacefully,” her eyes were narrowed.

“And what would happen to Rogue?” Dr. McCoy asked.

Carol shrugged. “I don’t know. But she tried to kill me first. Even if it’s hard for you to see, she deserves this.”

“Sorry, bub, that’s not gonna happen,” Logan snarled as he burst into the room, Jean and the Professor following closely behind.

Carol flew forward, her strength shoving Logan out of the way. Jean telekinetically threw a bed in front of the doors and slammed them shut, but Carol just blasted them with a light beam of sorts.

“Chuck, how would you recommend taking care of this little problem without hurting Rogue?” Logan gritted as he pushed the bed that Carol had blasted in front of him off.

“As of the moment, her mind is still to cluttered to enter. However, I think that if we were to be able to get Carol to take her defenses down, I would be able to get in there long enough to help,” he suggested, rolling forward in his chair as Jean moved the objects in his path.

“Well, may I suggest that first we keep her from injuring anyone else?” Dr. McCoy offered. “The students will be leaving class right about now, the last thing we need is for Carol to accidentally injure anyone.”

“I don’t know how ‘accidental’ it’ll be,” Logan muttered.

“I have met Carol, however briefly, and she is a good person. I think that it is simply a huge misunderstanding. You can understand why she’d be distraught,” the Professor explained.

“So if it comes down to it, who do we save? Rogue or Carol?” asked Jean.

“I think that the best option would be to, for the moment, tuck Carol more tightly away inside Rogue’s mind until more of this becomes clear,” the Professor sighed.

“Well then,” Jean swallowed. “Time to go find Carol.”

_In the Main room_

“I’m just saying that he could’ve gone back for them,” Kitty shrugged.

“No way,” Bobby shook his head in disagreement. “There’s this whole paradox thing. He saw their names on the tombstone, so if they had died somewhere else-”

“Seriously guys? It’s a show,” Jubilee giggled. “Their contracts probably just expired.”

“It is not just a show,” Kitty crossed her arms. “It’s a lifestyle.”

“Whateves’,” Jubilee laughed again. “Glad to see that you finally left your room,” she smiled towards Regina, who looked surprisingly nice, at least not like she’d crawled out of a trash bin. Her hair was brushed, her clothes were clean, and, at least from this distance, her breath wasn’t noticeably smelly.

“Me too,” her voice was just slightly worn out. “It was getting annoying having to sneak around so nobody saw me.”

“So what changed your mind?” Bobby asked. “I was pretty sure that you were raising trolls in there.”

“Haha, very funny,” she rolled her eyes. “It got to the point where I had every song on my playlist memorized, so I realized I needed to go all Lion King and Hakuna Matata that shit. Stop moping.”

“Good for you,” Piotr nodded. “Do any of you hear that?” suddenly there was crashing as Carol flew down the stairs.

“Rogue! You’re awake!” Kitty smiled.

Carol just glared at them, then her expression softened slightly. She looked as if she was just going to ignore them until Lance strut into the room. “You,” her eyes narrowed. “You’re with them! I saw it in her memories, you were the one that was delaying the airport response!” she launched at him, so fast that in the blink of an eye she was on top of him, her strength pinning him down.

“Okay! Not Rogue!” Kitty squealed. “Who are you lady?”

“My name is Carol Danvers,” her eyes narrowed. “I’m the ‘lady’ that Rogue killed.”

“Oh my,” Kitty bit her lip. “Well, uh, in that case…” she looked to Jubilee. “What do we do?”

“Um…” Jubilee shrugged nervously.

“Look, lady, I’m sorry that this happened to you, but I’m not the person that you should be attempting murder on,” Lance managed to get out. “And not Rogue either, we were just following orders. The real villain here is Mystique.”

“Raven Darkholme. We have some files on her,” Carol nodded.

“And if you know that I was one of the people distracting the airport responds by looking in Rogue’s memories, then you should know that she was only doing it because she had no other choice. Neither of us did,” Lance winced as Carol increased the pressure slightly.

“You always have a choice!” she shouted.

“Not when a crazy blue woman would kill you if you didn’t. And even worse for Rogue, that’s her mother,” Carol finally let go of Lance, flying up to a standing position.

“Raven Darkholme? Fine. I’ll go after her,” she looked like she was about to fly out the window when someone finally spoke up.

“Wait!” it was Gambit. “Chère, what’re you doin’?”

Slowly, almost robotically she turned. “It’s not Rogue. I suggest that you let me go before someone gets hurt.”

Then Kurt spoke up. “Ve’re not stopping you. Vhy are you still here zen?”

Carol looked from person to person, something in the back of her mind stirring. Rogue, she was trying to take control again. And in that brief minute of nobody in control, the Professor struck.

_In Rogue’s mind_

Finding his way into her mind, he looked inside to see a torn up landscape, little wisps of previously absorbed psyches floating around here and there.

In the center of her mindscape was a beat up house. Once it probably stood proud, but now the paint was peeling and the shutters were broken. “Rogue, dear, are you in here?”

The Professor walked into the house cautiously. There was a light sobbing coming from upstairs in the attic of the house. “Rogue? Can you hear me?”

Once he made it up to the source of the crying, he saw a young girl with brown hair crying in the corner. “Shhh!” she waved her hands. “You have to be quiet, or she’ll hear you!”

“Who will? Carol?” the Professor asked gently.

“She told me that if ah got in her way again she was gonna hurt everyone!” the young girl whispered.

“Do you want me to help you get her to stop?” he offered.

She nodded rapidly. “Follow me,” she spoke softly as she led him down the stairs and then in the back and down another set of stairs into a cellar. There was a cage with a lock on the outside. The young Rogue pulled out a key and showed it to the Professor. “Ah had her trapped in here, but she escaped. Can you make it better?”

“I think that I can improve it,” the Professor focused, until the bars on the cage thickened and stretched and it became a solid metal box with a single door in the center. “This is better. Do you know where Carol is now?”

Rogue nodded again. “She’s up in the center. Where all the others are.”

“The psyches? The people you’ve absorbed?”

“Yeah,” she grasped his hand tightly and climbed upstairs and out the door. Once they were outside the wind began to pick up again, blowing her hair around her. “Ah don’t think that they knew that they could take over if they tried. Ah don’t think that it’s good that they do know.”

“Don’t worry, Rogue, most of them are too weak to even do any damage aside from talk to you. Most of them are just shadows,” he assured her.

“How do we get her to come down there?” young Rogue asked. “She won’t listen to me. Ah tried to get her, but she just shoves me away.”

“Maybe we can get some help,” he gestures to some of the friendlier psyches.

“They don’t like me. They kept talking to me and telling me that ah was a leech and a horrible person. Even Logan,” the young mutant cast her eyes downwards.

“I think that’s because that’s what you were thinking of yourself at the time,” he mused. “You should ask them to help. I think that you’ll be surprised.”

“Okay…” she hesitantly let go of his hand and walked over to the edge of the mass of wisps. Logan was among the clearer ones, due to her absorbing him multiple times. “Logan? Can you help me?”

“And why should I help you when all you do is hurt people?” he growled.

Young Rogue looked crestfallen at first, but then she glanced back to the Professor, who nodded encouragingly. Then she pulled herself to her full-admittedly short-height, and looked at him in the eye. “Logan, you know as well ah do that ah didn’t mean for any of this to happen, and you’re my friend.”

He stared at her for a moment before breaking into a smile. “I knew that the fire was still in you somewhere. But I’ll tell you this, kid, it ain’t gonna be easy.”

_Fight Song by Rachel Platten plays over next few scenes_

“Is it ever?” she smiled back at him. “But ah’m not gonna wait and not fight back. This is my body, not hers. She needs to suck it up and accept that this was an accident,” she turned back to the Professor. “He says he’s gonna help.”

“I knew that he would. I am afraid, however, that nobody else is really strong enough to help. Not that I think that we’ll need it,” the Professor looked towards Carol, who was standing at the top of a hill.

Logan unsheathed his claws, about to charge forward, but the little brunette but a gentle hand on his arm. “She can shoot these energy blasts at you. It’s because her DNA is mixed with Kree. All of that information is in here,” as she tapped her head, an image appeared in front of them of Carol and an alien creature. It disappeared almost as soon as it had appeared. “See? Ah’m a living Carol Danvers encyclopedia.”

“Perhaps after we finish with this ordeal, I can help you with that,” the Professor offered.

“One problem at a time, Chuck,” Logan cracked his knuckles. “And I’m liking the one that we can hit.”

“Ah’m all for beatin’ the livin’ crap outta her, but remember that this is still my mind,” Rogue reminded him.

“Rogue is right, we need to be careful. We have a cage prepared for her down in the basement of the house, the trick is getting there. Which is where you come in,” the Professor gestured to Logan. “Do you think that if Rogue distracted her, you would be able to knock her unconscious?”

“Don’t even need to ask,” Logan slid his claws in and then out again while looking at the blonde.

“Minimal terrain damage!” Rogue repeated before heading over to Carol.

The blonde, who was normally probably a good three inches taller than Rogue, was now a solid foot taller. “I told you, leech, let me take control or I hurt everyone you care about.”

“Why? Ah can tell from your memories that you were a nice gal, why are you acting like this?” asked Rogue.

“Because I don’t have anything left. I was so close-but you took it all away!” just as Carol was about to blast Rogue with a bit of light energy again when Logan hit her over the head. As Carol’s psyche fell to the ground, the entire mindscope shook visibly.

“Rogue, I believe that means that your body has entirely fallen unconscious,” The Professor explained. “Now, let’s get Carol into the cage, shall we?”

“Can ah take control yet?” young Rogue asked. “It doesn’t feel right without anyone in control.”

“I think that our chances of her staying under control are better if you yourself put her away,” she didn’t look convinced, so he continued. “It’s like how it was with Logan. If you don’t forgive yourself for what happened with Carol, neither will she.”

Rogue bit her lip for a second, and then nodded. “Then ah guess that we should get going.”

Young Rogue grasped the Professor’s hand, enjoying not having to wear gloves for once, as they headed back up to the old house, Logan dragging Carol behind them. At the top of the stairs they paused for a moment, looking down into the depths of the basement. “Professor?” Rogue asked quietly.

“Yes, my dear?” he replied.

“Will you be able to put Carol back into her body?” Rogue turned to look at the blonde, who was unconscious and slung over Logan’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“That will have to be something that we find out at a later time,” the Professor looked around her mind and sighed. “Rogue, your mind is so used to taking, not giving back, I don’t know how it would handle me attempting to remove a psyche from it.”

“But ah feel like ah kinda owe it to her. Even if it was Mystique who made me, ah still did it, even if ah knew that it was going to hurt her,” she twisted a strand of hair awkwardly.

“Look kid, you don’t owe her anything. But let’s just get going,” as Logan was about to head down the stairs, Carol leaped from his shoulder, tackling Rogue and causing them to somersault over each other, rolling down the stairs until they hit the bottom and stopped outside the cage, the door at the top of the stairs slamming shut and locking.

“I am not going to let you lock me up again!” Carol flipped over, pinning her down.

“And ah’m not going to just surrender myself to you!” Rogue spit in her face, then kneed her in the stomach, gaining a momentary advantage and getting to her feet.

“Well I am not going to stop fighting you. Even if by some miracle you do lock me up in that cage, you can count on the fact that I will always be fighting, until I win,” Carol launched a punch across Rogue’s face, bloodying her nose.

“Well that is truly unfortunate, Ms. Danvers,” the young girl spoke spitefully as she wiped the blood off her face. “Because ah will always fight back.”

She quickly yanked the rug out from underneath Carol, causing her to tumble to the ground, and Rogue kicked her brutally in the stomach again, punching and kicking, and the second that Carol rolled into the cage, she slammed the door shut and locked it, focusing as she pressed her hands to the outer side of it and it sealed shut.

As she looked up, the door opened, and she eagerly bound up the stairs to join the Professor and Logan. “Ah did it. She’s in the cage, and ah sealed it up nice and tight.”

“Then I think that it’s time to wake up. Our friends seem quite worried about you, and it would be best if we assured them that you are okay,” Charles Xavier smiled towards the young girl, who smiled in return before facing Logan.

“Thank you for helping me so much,” she hugged him, then held his hand in her own ungloved one. “Ah’m gonna miss this.”

“Maybe, but perhaps we will be closer to discovering the lack of control now that we’ve realized that your problems are more mental than we previously believed,” he suggested.

“Perhaps,” she shrugged. “Now ah’m just gonna focus on gettin’ outta mah head.”  

“It is quite simple my dear,” he assured her. “You just have take control.”

Rogue closed her eyes and focused, picking up the mental steering wheel inside of her head. When she opened her eyes again, she was inside of the Med Lab.

**Commercial Break**

_In the Med Lab_

Rogue sat up suddenly, looking at her hands, which her ungloved, before looking up to see the Professor too opening his eyes. She felt a warm liquid on her face and touched it to see that her nose was bleeding, but if that was the only side effect of her time with Carol, she’d count her lucky stars.

“It worked!” she smiled.

“So you’re you?” Logan confirmed. “And you’re not going to try to kill us all?”

“Ah’m me. Carol’s all locked away, safe and sound,” she smiled brightly. “I know that it was all in mah head, but thanks for helpin’ me, Logan.”

“Um, you're welcome?” he looked to the Professor for a brief moment before looking at her again.

“Can ah go now?” Rogue asked. “Ah wanna see everyone.”

“Of course. By all means my dear, go down,” he nodded as she jumped off the chair, but froze at the door.

“Where are mah gloves?” she asked, walking back to the bed and looking around.

“Here, kid,” Logan pulled them out of his pocket, handing them to her. “Carol ripped them off.”

“Thanks, Logan,” she pulled the gloves on before hugging Logan tightly, then headed to the door.

“Glad that’s over,” he said as soon as Rogue was out of earshot. “Kid’s gonna be alright?”

“The problem is solved, yes. But with anything, there is always the chance that something could happen. However, I think that the chance for that is limited,” the Professor explained.

_In the Living Room_

_Shots by Imagine Dragons plays until End Credits_

“Roguey!” Jubilee exclaimed, running up and hugging Rogue ask she walked in. “You’re back!”

Rogue smiled brightly at her, hugging back. “Glad that y’all missed me.”

She sat down on the couch between Jubilee and Kitty. “You, like, are going to have so much homework,” Kitty smiled as she hugged Rogue.

“Ugh,” Rogue groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

Kitty was about to reply when she spotted Lance standing at the door, his bags in hand. “I’ll be right back,” she stood up, walking towards him.

“Hey Kitty-cat,” he smiled sadly. “What’s up?”

“Are you, like, leaving?” asked Kitty.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “This place has even more drama and problems than the Brotherhood. Not to mention all the do goodie rules. It’s not for me.”

“But here you can do good! In the Brotherhood all you do is cause disruptions and hurt people!” Kitty tried to explain, but he just shook his head.

“You think so low of me, Kitty-cat. It hurts,” Lance laughed. “Tell me, who’s having more effective results?” he blew a kiss at her as he walked out the door. “See ya’ in battle, Kitty-Cat.”

_In the Kitchen_

Meanwhile, Ororo and Jean were sitting with cups of coffee.

“Have you seen the news?” Jean asked. “Ever since the ‘Mutant Massacre’, there have been so many political debates on whether or not it was a good thing that I’ve lost count.”

“I can agree. But at least you can agree that they’re making progress. There are more and more people in favor of giving mutants one hundred percent equal rights,” Ororo spoke hopefully.

“It shouldn’t have ever even have been a question,” said Jean into her coffee. “But it’s still progress.”

“Speaking of progress, have you had any with Regina and controlling her new powers?” asked Ororo.

“Not really. There haven’t been any accidents so far, but she has so much anger she could probably kill us all if she wanted to,” Jean chuckled a little bit. “So how are you, Ororo? It’s been awhile since we’ve gotten to just talk without a death threat looming over us.”

Ororo chuckled. “That’s true. I’m good. How are you and Scott doing?”

“Good. We keep planning dates, but they never end up happening because, you know, the ever present death threats,” she laughed, too. “I don’t really mind, though.”

“That’s good,” smiled Ororo.

_In Matt’s room_

“All done,” Matt looked up, speaking for the first time since Shadow finished her story.

“Good,” she started to leave, but stopped at the door. “You’re not entirely awful. Not like the rest of them. Maybe when I’m done with this place, I won’t attack you.”

“How about not attacking anybody? I get that you’re angry, and you have every right to be, but killing everybody isn’t going to solve anything,” Matt offered.

She laughed, but it had an empty ring to it. Like she had nothing left to lose, and she was sure as hell going to make sure that everyone else knew what that felt like. “You think that I’m going to kill them?”

“Well...what are you going to do if you aren’t?” asked he.

“I am going to make them all fear me,” she said gravelly. “I’m going to make Charles regret ever locking me up.”

**End Credits**

Promo for the next half of the season:

As new villains emerge from the shadows, old secrets and lies will come back to haunt everyone. Romances will brew, and lives will be at stake. But one thing is for sure-nothing is ever going to be the same.


	12. The Darkness in the Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This Episode's Promo:  
> In a vicious act of revenge, Shadow traps the X-Men in the Danger Room, attacking from every angle and forcing Charles to confront his past choices.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The highly rated show 'The X-Men: Classified' returns from its midseason break, and with assurance from the Producer that the conflicting schedules are being cleared up, there are high hopes for the second half of the season!
> 
> Hello guys! I'm back! I have a new system for writing and publishing, and all of the rest of this season is planned out, so I will try to update each Sunday.  
> Enjoy!

**Season One, Episode Twelve**

**The Darkness in the Shadows**

_ In the Danger Room _

“Golden boy, I swear to God if you don’t actually get off your arse and try I will kill you,” Matt swore as he dived out of the way of the incoming laser beam, and Daniel, yelping, followed.

“I am trying!” he frowned.

“This is a laser shooting robot!” Kitty frowned in agreement with Matt. “You should be able to take it apart with one shot!”

Daniel closed his eyes, trying to drain some of the energy from the robot, but stopped after half of the energy was out and shot the electricity at the robot. It made it stumble for a moment, but it continued forward. “Sorry!”

“That’s it!” Matt turned away from the robot and towards Daniel. With a quick motion of his hand, Daniel froze, wide eyed, looking around. 

“Hey!” Daniel swung his hands around, and it wasn’t until Logan leaped on top of him and shoved him out of the way from a laser beam that was headed directly towards him that Matt relented and returned his senses. 

“This is supposed to be about teamwork, bub! If this was really out there in the field, you could of gotten him killed!” growled Logan. 

“Well maybe we could of gotten killed if we have to keep saving him because he refuses to actually try!” Matt shot back.

“Keep running your mouth, bigshot! I’d love to have another round against you in the Danger Room!” Logan shot out his claws menacingly. 

“Logan!” Jean scowled, walking over to them with Ororo, Scott, Hank and the Professor coming to talk to the students. “There’s other ways to do this without threatening their health.”

“But that’s my favorite way,” he grumbled, retracting his claws.

“What did you think that you were doing?” Scott asked Matt, arms crossed.

“I was convincing him that he needed to put in the same amount of effort as the rest of us,” Matt shrugged.

The rest of the team walked over, Kurt bamfing to them. “Are ve done?”

“I think that someone just guaranteed us another hour,” Regina growled. 

“I know that it can get annoying, and not everyone is good at working as a team,” Ororo spoke placidly. “But we need to try if we are going to survive when we’re out in the real world, we need to figure out how to get along.”

“Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, and once you guys learn that everyone is essential, we’ll be that much stronger as a team,” the Professor assured them.

Suddenly the entire Danger Room powered down to blackness. Someone screamed, and they could hear the bamf of Kurt’s teleportation.

“Matt, if this is you-” Logan started.

“It’s not!” he threw up his arms in defense. “You can still hear me. I can’t only take away one sense. Besides, I can sort of see you.”

“Is this part of the session?” Jubilee asked nervously. 

“I am afraid not,” the Professor replied.

“Professor,” Jean spoke slowly. “Can you-can you sense that?”

“I can,” for once, you could hear the quiver of fear in the Professor’s voice, and something else...regret. 

“If I may ask, sense what?” Hank questioned.

“Hatred,” Jean said softly. “So much hatred.”

_ Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons _

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young) 

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

Mackenzie Foy  _ as  _ Shadow*

Ian McKellen  _ as  _ Magneto

Kelsey Grammer  _ as  _ Beast

James McAvoy  _ as  _ Young Charles Xavier

Michael Fassbender  _ as  _ Young Magneto

Sophie Turner  _ as  _ Young Jean

Alexandra Shipp  _ as  _ Young Storm

Tye Sheridan  _ as  _ Young Cyclops

Claire Geare  _ as  _ Toddler Shadow*

Sterling Jerins  _ as  _ Child Shadow*

 

_ Miss Fletching’s Home for Girls _

_ Ten Years Ago _

“Caterina is one of our...problem children,” Miss Fletching said hesitantly. “The other children are afraid of her, and it seems that she’s used that to her own advantage.”

“I assume that this is because of her mutation?” Charles asked, rolling alongside Erik.

“Yes...her eyes are quite...unusual, and her personality is not as we expected from a child her age,” Miss Fletching answered.

“Has she shown any other abilities?” Erik asked curiously. “I mean, since we’ve last contacted you.”

“None that I’ve witnessed, but…” Miss Fletching bit her lip. “The other children have reported that she can...kill things. I don’t know what they mean, and as far as I know there’ve been no injuries because of it.”

“Thank you,” Charles nodded. 

“This is her room,” Miss Fletching gestured. 

“Do you mind if we talk to her alone?” Erik asked. “We want to get a good sense if she’s a good...addition to our school.”

“Of course. My office is downstairs,” she said before disappearing downstairs.

“This is not going to be like Jean. Do you understand me?” Charles spoke clearly, his eyes narrowed. 

“I don’t know what you mean. I think that Jean turned out perfectly fine,” Erik chuckled. 

“You know exactly what I mean. I invited you here because I thought that you would be able to relate to this little girl better than I can. We are not using her for her power, we are going to try to give her a family and help her,” Charles lectured. 

“I think that we should meet her before we go and start making declarations of helping little children,” Erik replied as he slid the door open to her room.

The first thing that hit them was a smell of death. It was clear that the women hadn’t dared go in here in ages. Dark and rotted fruit littered the room, with a basket of apples in the middle next to a little girl. She turned slowly to face them, and eerie expression on her face. The most shocking was the pitch black eyes. 

“What’s in your coat?” she said sharply.

“I’m sorry-what?” Erik and Charles exchanged glances. “My name’s Erik, and this is Charles. We-”

“I asked what is in your coat,” she narrowed her eyes, gripping the apple tighter. “Give me your wallet.”

“I don’t know why you think that we are just going to hand over money,” Charles leaned forward. “I’ve heard that you are having a hard time here, and I would like to invite you to my school.”

Her grip on the apple tightened so much that the juice dripped down the side. From her fingers spread a darkness that surrounded the apple until it spread around the entire thing and it turned pitch black, and was rotten from the inside out until it was completely demolished. “Give me your bloody wallet or I’ll do this to you too.”

“You like it, don’t you?” Erik asked after a moment of silence. “The feeling that being in charge gives you. You like people being afraid of you.”

“I like being respected. They didn’t want me here. I made them not want to send me away,” she smiled wickedly. 

“I can help you become more in control of your gift,” Charles offered.

“I am in control of my gift. There’s nothing that you can offer me,” Caterina countered. 

“We can get you out of here,” Erik said. “These people here, they don’t respect you. They don’t understand your potential. So you can stay here with them, grow up with them fearing you but never moving forward, or you can come back with us and we can teach you how to be the best you can be, the most powerful.”

Charles gave Erik a look-his methods of persuasion weren’t what he would’ve used. But this girl had one of the darkest minds that he’d ever seen, and a gift that could be incredible powerful. He definitely didn’t want her on the wrong side. 

“I’ll come. But that doesn’t mean that I’ll stay,” Caterina decided.

“Great,” Charles forced a smile.

_ Danger Room _

_ Present Time _

“Can someone try and get some light?” Kitty asked, irritable. 

Gambit pulled out a card, charging it and giving off a brief moment of light. Jubilee joined him, lighting up some fireworks with her fingers. Catching on, Daniel shot out some lightning, hitting the lights until they powered up. “See?” he turns to Matt. “I can be helpful.”

“Yeah, well,” he shrugged. “Can we get out of here?”

Logan turns to the door, only to find that it was not only locked, but had steel reinforcing behind it. “What’s going on? Bobby, tell me that this isn’t one of your pranks.”

“I swear, it wasn’t!” he raised his hands in defense. “Why would I purposely make my Danger Room session longer?”

Matt looked at the ground, then back up at the still pitch black control room. Dread and realization seeped in to him as he noticed the blackness crawling across the ground to the other mutants. 

“Is there anyway to access the emergency controls from in here?” Jean asked.

“If we can get through the hidden control panels, then we could probably unlock it,” suggested Scott.

“Perfect,” Ororo nodded. “Logan, you stay here and make sure the kids don’t do anything stupid. Jean, Scott and I will go and take a look at the control panel.”

“I ain’t a babysitter-” started Logan when a loud whirring of machines started up. 

“Hello, family,” a voice seethed from above. “Remember me? Probably not, after all a power hungry asshole practically deleted me from existence. As you can see-I’m back, bitches,” everyone exchanged looks, nervous. “You probably seem confused, and you’ll want to ask Charles about those missing memories. But first, why don’t you guys have some fun? These Danger Room sessions, they seem pretty exciting. Not that I would know, that’s just another thing that I’ve got taken away from me. But they don’t seem very...dangerous. You’re supposed to be trained for the real world. This isn’t the real world. I think that I’ll give you a taste of what the real world is, and you can ask yourselves, ‘doesn’t Charles Xavier trust me with reality?’ I think you’ll find that the answer is quite obvious-he doesn’t. Now why don’t we get this game started?”

Monsters and creatures of the night began to descend down upon the X-Men. “Professor-” Jean started, telekinetically blasting a few of the creatures away from them. “Who is that?”

“She was a student here. I’m afraid that she is quite angry with the measures I took to protect people from her,” he replied, looking up at the control room. “Even if I was trying to protect her from herself.”

**Commercial Break**

_ The Institute _

_ Around Seven Years Ago _

“People don’t understand us. That’s why we need to teach them,” the Professor explained. 

“But what if they don’t listen to us then? I mean, you’ve seen what they’ve done before,” Caterina argued.

“Not all of people out there are like that. Some people understand us and don’t discriminate,” Jean pointed out.

“But not the majority. The majority want to burn us at the stake. If we’re going to keep going on like this so oppressed that we can’t even breathe,” Caterina gripped her own chair tightly, and Jean’s chair started to rot out a little bit until the Professor cleared his throat. Glaring, Caterina let go of her chair, and Jean’s chair returned to its original state..

“Caterina, may I speak with you for a moment?” the Professor asked. 

“What, was I not clear enough?” she shot up and out the door, the Professor following.

Once they were out the door, Caterina pulled out an apple from who-knows-where, letting the darkness spread in and out of it. “Caterina, I know how you feel about people, but you can’t take out your anger on other students.”

“They pity me. It’s disgusting,” she spat. “I could take them all out with my eyes closed.”

“Caterina!” scolded the Professor. “You need to recognize that we’re all equal. If you keep acting the way that you are, if you head down this path, I will be forced to stop you.”

“Stop me? What are you going to do? If it weren’t for you, I’d still be out there in the world, and I’d be getting things done,” Caterina dropped the now black apple and disappeared into the wall as a shadow. 

The Professor sighed, rolling back into the classroom to dismiss the students. Jean and Ororo walked out moments after, talking amongst themselves. “I always regret starting a conversation with Caterina. It usually ends with her threatening to kill me,” Jean sighed.

“Did she this time?” asked Ororo.

“Not directly, but did you see what she started to do to my chair? I think that we need to try and help her before she gets worse,” Jean considered.

“She’s only what, nine? Ten? Maybe it’s just a phase,” Ororo guessed, but Jean shook her head.

“I don’t think so. I remember when Charles and Erik went to go adopt her and brought her home years ago. We were all excited that we had a little girl coming that young. We thought she’d be cute and we could play with her, but the second she opened her mouth we realized how wrong we were,” Jean stopped walking, now thinking aloud. “I think that maybe it has something to do with her first few years. Before she came here. I mean, one look into her mind and you can see that she has a photographic memory, and there they didn’t treat her very well. It’s almost like they were encouraging her to be scary, and if that’s all the experience that she has with other people, it’s no wonder she hates them so much.”

Ororo nodded. “That’s why I want to stay here as a teacher. There’s so many young students out there in the world just like her. I want to help them.”

“I almost feel bad for her,” agreed Jean. “I wish that I had a way to help her. But she doesn’t let anyone get close.”

“Except Erik, last time that he was here. Those two are as thick as thieves, and she actually seemed to respect him,” Ororo noted.

“I didn’t think that was possible, for her to respect someone like that. And I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing,” Jean shrugged before walking off with Ororo. Caterina’s shadow appeared briefly on the wall, as if she were pressing her hands against it, and the wood where her hands were rotted away.

_ Danger Room _

_ Present Day _

“What does she mean, missing memories?” asked Kurt. “Did we know zis girl?”

“No, no,” the Professor assured them. “You never knew Caterina. Most of you didn’t, only a few knew her when she went to school here, and that was around a decade ago.”

“So we knew her?” Scott asked. “She would’ve went her around the same time that we did. Did we know her? Were we friends with her?”

“No, she was much much younger when you knew her. She would be around the kids age,” the Professor responded, guilty.

“Uh, guys,” Rogue interrupted, literally ripping one of the creatures in half. “Ah think that we have bigger problems. Maybe ask about your missin’ memories after we stop the monsters?”

“She is right,” Ororo closed her eyes, then opened them once more, this time pure white as she summoned the winds and lightning to destroy the creatures. 

“You must’a really done somethin’ horrid to make her hate you dis much,” Gambit pointed out with a smirk.

“Stop chattin’ and start fightin’!” Rogue explained, flying in front of him to rip apart another creature.

More and more creatures started descending upon Jean, almost as if they all hated her. Cyclops let loose a few beams that pushed them away, and Jean herself used telekinesis to keep them at bay, but more just kept coming. It wasn’t until Regina screamed out, “ _ Dios maldita sea! _ Why is she so freaking angry!” and a frequency that was so high that it caused all of the X-Men to cover their ears and the monsters explode that they stopped coming down in waves. “And I can see that they’re all coming after you,” she turned to Jean. “So whatever happened back then, you must’ve done something awful, because she seems to hate you the most.”

“Professor?” Jean asked. “I don’t think that we can stop her unless we have our memories back. We don’t even know what she wants from us.”

“I do,” Matt finally spoke up. “I know what she wants.”

“Oh yeah?” Logan walked closer to him. “And what would that be, bub?”

“She wants you guys to fear her,” he turned to Charles. “And she wants you to regret ever locking her up.”

**Commercial Break**

“You knew that she was going to do this?” Logan unsheathed his claws, walking towards Matt.

“You had a little girl locked up in here?” Ororo interrupted, shocked. “Whatever could she of done to make it go to such drastic measures?”

“I promise you, I will return your memories and explain everything, but first I need to talk to Matt,” the Professor turned to him. “Did she come to you or did you find her?” he asked.

Matt looked from the Professor to Logan, who was staring at him menacingly. “I, uh, she came to me. When Rin was sick and you wouldn’t let me in to see her. She offered to go in and see her for me, if I never told anyone that I had talked to her. She was just a shadow then.”

“Did she ask for something in return? Like maybe information on something, or someone?” he prompted.

“No, she seemed pretty adept at getting information on her own,” Matt thought back. “She gave me a grocery list of things to get for her. And she asked that I called her Shadow instead of her real name. The only reason I knew her real name was because I overheard you talking on the phone about her, and I connected the dots.”

“I was lucky to find her when I did. She had gotten sick, and was near exhaustion in one of the back hallways. She was easily subdued then, because she was sick...I never dreamed that she had gotten out again. I checked on her, and whenever I did she was doing what she was supposed to,” the Professor sighed.

“Maybe she didn’t like being locked up like that,” Matt suggested. “I mean, we can tell that she’s a bit angry about being erased. Can you blame her?”

“I kind of agree with Matt,” Bobby said. “Not only was she erased from everyone’s memories, but she was locked away from the world.”

“Her powers were to become and create darkness, and she could also demolish and deteriorate organic material,” the Professor explained. “Combine that with her rather bitter personality, she would make a formidable foe.”

“What exactly did she do, Charles?” Jean asked softly. “Why does she hate us so much? Did we do something to her to cause her to retaliate?”

“No, you never did anything to cause her harm,” Charles assured her, only to be interrupted by Shadow’s menacing voice.

“I think that it’s time to stop talking,” if possible she sounded even angrier. “I don’t appreciate being muffled like a dog, put out like a candle that your afraid will burn down the house. It’s suffocating. Maybe you should see how it feels.”

Smoke poured into the room, but it wasn’t normal. It didn’t burn as much as it cut off the air and darkened the room. Invisible creatures attacked them, causing the students to fight out against the air. 

“Professor-” Jubilee choked out between attacks. “Just because her main plan isn’t to kill us, it doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to die if we don’t do something soon.”

“I can try to teleport us out of here!” Nightcrawler offered, but the second he said that, a machine fell from the air, landing on top of him, then securing itself around his neck.

“If you so much as attempt to use your powers, this will electrocute you until your teammates go deaf from your screams. Attempt to have blondie deactivate it with his powers, it will explode, killing everyone in this room. Sorry if that in anyway inconveniences your epic escape plan,” Shadow announced dryly. 

Rogue flew up to the roof of the Danger Room, trying to get some air, but she’d barely taken a breath when she darted out of the way of what seemed to be generating the invisible creatures. Ripping it out from the wall, she shouted a brief, “Look out!” before dropping it down. 

“Well…” Gambit nodded approvingly. “Dat will certainly make things easier.”

“We still have the smoke to deal with, but I can take turns, taking people up there to get air,” she offered.

“Good idea,” Jean nodded. “Take the other students first, Ororo can help while the Professor explains everything.”

_ The Institute _

_ Around Seven Years Ago _

_ Paint it Black cover by Vanessa Carlton plays over next few scenes _

Jean opened her eyes hazily, looking around the dark room. “What-what’s going on? Where am I?” blinking some more, she tried to recall how she’d gotten here. The last thing she remembered she’d been on her way to her room when...suddenly it hit her like a brick. Caterina had knocked her out with chloroform. It wasn’t very clear, all she remembered was seeing a shadow on the wall and feeling cloth pressed against her face, but it couldn’t be anyone else. The little girl...maybe it was a misunderstanding. Maybe she thought it was a shapeshifter, or she had a good reason for it.

Shimmering out of the shadows, Caterina appeared, a small knife in her hand. “Took you long enough. I was worried that your tiny little brain couldn’t handle that much chloroform. Glad that you’re awake.”

“Caterina? What’s going on? Where are we?” Jean tried to sit up, but her head pounded, and her wrists were bound. “What are you doing?”

“I heard you and Storm talking, and I am so sick of it,” she strutted closer to Jean, twirling the knife. “I hate you guys so bloody much. Why do you keep looking down on me? Why do you think that I can’t have a single logical thought? ‘Oh, it’s just because of her past’, like I’m a human that got bit by a dog and now I’m afraid of going near one. I have reasons, and I’m right. Even if my parents did keep me and not brand me as a sign for the devil, I would feel the same way.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Jean sighed, trying and failing to get up. “You’re in pain, and I understand. Let the Professor and I help you. Please,” she begged.

Caterina slashed Jean’s arm with her knife. “I am not ‘in pain’, I am not a broken girl for you to fix. I will inflict the pain. I will not be the oppressed any longer, I will be the oppressor. They can know how it feels.”

“Know how what feels, Caterina?” Jean asked. 

Caterina didn’t know quite how to answer that. She wasn’t afraid of them, that wasn’t the word she’d use...it was like they were suffocating her, and it just made her angrier and angrier until she felt like she was going to explode. From the other side of the spectrum was people like Jean, who smothered her and swaddled her like a child. Like all of her views were just pure emotion, like she was unable to have any logic at all. Like she was weak and needed to be protected. It was sickening. “Know how it feels to not be able to breathe!” she exclaimed, clutching Jean’s arm suddenly. Jean screamed out in pain as a dark decay spread out from Caterina’s fingers. 

“Caterina-stop it!” Jean tried to pull away, but Caterina tightened her grip, the decay spreading even further. 

“What’s going on? Jean?” Scott banged on the door from the other side. 

“Shit, how did he-” Caterina gathered herself, letting go of Jean. “Never mind. Come with me,” Caterina unlocked Jean from her chair, supporting Jean and walking over to the wall. Reaching her hand into it, she began to dissolve into shadow, pulling Jean in with her. 

“Caterina, please, stop it-” Jean tried again, but Caterina interrupted her.

“Are you afraid now? Do you still think that I’m a broken little girl with emotional problems?” Caterina spat out.

“No,” Jean replied, gathering enough energy to blast Caterina away and against the wall, where she landed, half shadow, half not, although the darkness seemed to spread across the open side of her face. “I think that you’re a sick, delusional little girl who needs medical help.”

As she said that, Scott’s laser beams burst through the wall, he barged in towards Jean. “What’s going on? Caterina, what are you doing?” 

“I hate you!” Caterina screeched, lunging at them, her hands trailing darkness. Scott moved as if to send out another laser, but stopped when Caterina froze, a look of pure anger and hatred on her face.

Scott and Jean looked at each other, confused, as the Professor wheeled in. “I’m sorry Jean. I didn’t ever think that she would…” he looked down. “Scott, can you escort her to the Med Bay? I’ll take care of Caterina.”

Scott nodded, glaring at Caterina before disappearing out the door. Caterina tried to move, but it was useless. She could feel the Professor’s control’s inside her mind, wrapping around her and holding her tight so she couldn’t move. “Charles…” she spat out. “You...can’t...do...anything. The world is too broken for you and your peaceful notions to fix.”

“I took you in like a daughter,” Charles sighed. “I raised you...I don’t know where I went wrong with you. There’s so much anger and hatred in you...I’m sorry that I couldn’t help you.”

“You didn’t raise me!” Caterina choked out. “You brainwashed me! Tried to make me grow up like you, a pacifist who can’t do anything!”

“Caterina…” Charles looked pained, but touched his fingers to his temple. “Go down into the lock up room. Stay there. I will give you food and lessons, but don’t leave.”

Obediently she walked out of the room, her expression now slack, but fury burning behind her eyes. Charles stayed where he was for a few moments before following.

**Commercial Break**

_ Danger Room _

_ Present Day _

_ Migraine by Twenty One Pilots plays until End Credits _

“There you go,” Charles dropped his hand. “There are all of the memories that I took from you. I’m sorry, but I had to. What she did...it was emotionally scarring for everyone.”

“You...you erased all of that?” Jean asked, shocked. “All of those memories...just taken away, like that? Professor, you know that I respect you more than anyone, but I don’t see why you had to make us forget all of that.”

“At the time, I convinced myself that it was all for your own good. But now I can see that it was because I was ashamed. I had real hope in her, and she ending up being exactly what I stand against. For that I am sorry,” he looked back up towards the control center.

Storm and Rogue flew down, carrying Kurt and Gambit respectively. “That was fun,” Gambit winked, and Rogue groaned.

“Good lord. The smoke seems to be stopping, so that’s good. Did the Professor tell the whole story so we at least know what we’re up against?” Rogue asked, brushing herself off. 

“Yes,” Ororo nodded. “The Professor, I believe that the child is just upset. Maybe if we could just talk to her-”

“But last time when we tried to just talk to her she tried to kill Jean,” Scott pointed out. 

Matt looked back up at the control panel. The girl that he had met seemed unusually angry, and hateful towards the world, not to mention overly sarcastic and bitter, but from what they were describing, she was downright psychotic. He would talk to her, except now it seemed like it was a bit of a risk to his personal health.

“Guys, as fun as it is trying to find a non-violent answer to this soap opera, but I think that a round three is coming,” Regina pointed out. In the distance, Caterina had opened the vents from the control room just enough so smoke could come out. Instead of suffocating them, the second that it touched the trees on the surrounding edge of the room, they rotted and decayed until they were completely destroyed. 

“Um…” Jubilee looked from the trees to the Professor. “That is not good.”

“I thought you said that she didn’t want to kill us?” Kitty shouted towards Matt.

“She said that she didn’t! I don’t know what is-” suddenly there was a great groaning, the walls folding in and then pulling out. 

“Magneto!” Logan exclaimed. 

“How do you know that this isn’t just some new aspect of her powers?” Regina asked. 

“Because,” Logan groaned. “I can’t move.”

The master of magnetism floated down in to the room on the magnetic waves through a hole in the wall that he created. A moment later, the wall of the control center burst open, dragging Caterina out, wrapped in metal so tightly it looked as if she could barely breathe. “Well, Charles my old friend, I’m glad to see that you still require my help.”

“Erik,” Charles sighed. “Glad to see that you received my message.”

“I am more distracted by the fact that you were overpowered by Caterina, when, as I believe you phrased it, ‘you had her under control’?” Erik looked from Caterina to the rest of the students. “Were all of you really so trapped in here where you couldn’t escape?”

“Caterina wouldn’t allow it. On multiple occasions she even attempted to kill us,” explained the Professor. Shadow attempted to create more of the life-destroying smoke, but Magneto simply tightened his hold on her. 

“You know how I felt about you locking up a student with such potential. I’m guessing that she agreed with me that it was a bad idea?” Magneto chuckled. 

“Erik, this is not the time for joking. I appreciate your help, and I think that you and I should go and discuss in private what we shall do to help Caterina,” the Professor turned to the students. “You may all return to your rooms. Needless to say, classes are cancelled for the rest of the day.”

Slowly the other students trickled out of the Danger Room, all casting glances at Shadow. The last of leave was Jean, who stared at her for a few moments before dragging herself away. Once the room was empty, the Professor turned to Shadow once more. “Do you have any suggestions?” he asked Magneto after a moment of silence. 

“Well, I’ll say what I said before. I always hate to let go of such potential,” he looked over Shadow. 

“Why not let me go with him?” Shadow spit out. “You know as well as I do that I’ve always respected him more, and I’ll be out of his hair,” the Professor didn’t say anything, thinking. “What, afraid that with him I’ll actually be able to use my powers for once? Instead of being locked up?” 

“I promise that she’ll be safe with me, if that’s what you’re afraid of,” Magneto chuckled. 

“I am more afraid of the safety of others, if she were to go with you. Your methods are much different than mine, and I am afraid that her skill may result in a much higher mortality rate,” Charles Xavier explained.

“What other choice do you have?” Shadow asked.

“Caterina-” he started.

“Shadow,” she automatically corrected, narrowing her eyes.

“Shadow,” the word felt bitter on his tongue, and he paused, thinking of how to phrase what he wanted to say next. “When you go with him, should we meet on the battlefield, you will not be on our side. I hope you do not expect us to go any easier on you-”

“That’s the entire point. I go on the ‘enemy side’, we fight for different things. Sometimes we meet and fight. People get hurt. Sorry that you can’t see the world in your rose tinted glasses anymore,” she spoke with venom, leaning towards him through her metal trap.

“I am sorry that it had to end this way, Caterina,” the Professor bowed his head.

“I’m not,” was all she said in reply as Magneto undid her bounds and she exited the room with him.

“See you some other time, Charles,” Magneto bid farewell, tipping his head. As the two left, all that Charles Xavier could feel was a bitter disappointment and sadness as two lost friends and opportunities walked out the door.

**End Credits**

Promo for Next Episode ‘Fairytales’:

More of Gambit’s past catches up to him when a mysterious force begins to take out the mutant haters one by one.

 


	13. Fairytales

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This Episode's Promo:  
> More of Gambit's past begins to catch up with him as a mysterious force begins to take out mutant haters one by one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:  
> This story format is inspired by the amazing ARogueGambit7's Mutant High: Revolutionary! You should totally go read it, it's amazing.  
> Enjoy!

**Season One, Episode Thirteen**

**Fairytales**

_Ivan’s Tavern_

_New York, New York_

“That’ll be four-fifty,” the bartender slid Gambit the drink that he ordered, and Gambit, paying up like the honest man that he was, stepped away from the bar, looking around at the other people.

The Mansion had become way too much like a soap opera for his taste, and while he could already feel the repercussions from sneaking out this late, it was good to be away from everyone for once. No drama, no outbreak of mysterious diseases or mutants possessing other mutants, just plain...enjoyment.

Slipping his arm around a hazel haired girl who he’d flirted with earlier, she giggled, drinking her drink while batting her eyes, before saying. “So, you from around here?”

“New York?” Gambit asked, then chuckled into his glass. “Naw, I’m a southern boy, from New Orleans herself. What about you? Come here often?”

The girl launched into a long tale of moving from place to place, but Gambit’s eyes were drawn to a girl with long black hair standing out on the balcony with an older man, a glass of what was probably whisky in his hand and what looked like a very fine wine in hers. His hand rested just below her waist, but she pulled away from him for a moment, looking deep into his eyes before saying something to him. Gambit looked away for a moment, thinking that this was not something that he wanted to see, when suddenly the man stood up on the edge of the balcony, gripping the edge of the ceiling above him, and looked down. The girl nodded encouragingly, taking another deep drink from her glass. The man smiled in return, not looking in the least bit nervous about standing on a balcony that was several stories high, then let go, falling face first down and plummeting to what was most definitely his death.

The girl suddenly gasped, her glass falling and shattering at her feet. She let loose a horror movie like scream, running out from the balcony, which had been previously closed off, and into the main room of the bar. The hazel haired girl whom Gambit had been talking to turned around to see what was the commotion, along with the rest of the bar.

“He just-just jumped!” she looked from person to person, her eyes briefly landing on Gambit before jumping to the next person. “I don’t know why, he was so happy…” she trailed off, almost folding into herself before she continued on. “Can someone please help me? Call an ambulance?”

“I’m sorry, girlie,” the bartender said, and he truly did look sorry, he couldn’t even meet her eyes. “If he jumped from there, it’s impossible that he survived. I’ll have one of the waiters call an ambulance to take him away.”

“I can’t believe it,” the girl whispered, and Gambit felt a pang in his chest for her. Despite the fact that he had clearly seen something go on, the moment that she looked into his eyes, proclaimed that he jumped...he believed it.

“You want a drink?” he offered. “On the house.”

“Sure,” she nodded. “You wanna give me that Bourgogne Chardonnay?”

“Yeah, I’d love to give you that Bourgogne Chardonnay,” he agreed, pulling out an expensive looking bottle of wine. He began to pour her a glass, but she shook her head, gently touching his wrist with her hand.

She looked deep into the bartender’s eyes. “You want to give me the whole bottle. I have been through a very traumatic experience.”

Warning bells began to go off in Gambit’s head as the bartender handed over the entire bottle without question. Gambit had been here a lot-it was his go to ‘get out of the Mansion’ bar-and Ivan was a huge cheapskate. He wouldn’t crack open that bottle unless it was the President himself, and he certainly wouldn’t give away an entire bottle like that. The hazel haired girl beside Gambit was still prattling on about something or another, showing no signs of stopping. “Do you get what I mean?”

Knowing the best answer in these types of situations with women was always ‘yes’, Gambit tore his gaze away from the dark haired girl to answer the hazel haired one. “Of course, sweetheart.”

The girl-hadn’t she mentioned at some point during that ramble that her name was Michelle?-giggled again, leaning forward to take a sip from her fruity drink, positioned herself just so Gambit could see the full extent of her bosom. Drinking in the view, he didn’t look away until the dark haired girl tapped on his shoulder, wine bottle in tow. “Show me your eyes,” she spoke sweetly and seductively, her voice dripping with honey. “I thought that I saw them from across the bar, and I want to see if I’m right. And you want to show me your eyes…” it wasn’t a question, but a statement. And Gambit wanted to show her eyes, he really did. He wanted to do whatever she said, indulge her in whatever way she asked.

Despite the complaints of Michelle, he pulled away from her, tugging his dark sunglasses down a bit so his red on black eyes were visible. The girl with dark hair smiled even more, then laced her arm around his, their skin tingling wherever they came in contact. “That’s amazing. Tell me, what’s your name?”

“Dey call me Gambit,” he responded, not oblivious to her free hand tracing along his body. “And who might you be?”

“They call me Siren,” she placed her hand on his chest, looking into his eyes. “Take care of the tag along so we can have some real fun.”

Instantaneously turning to Michelle, he tossed her a twenty. “Get a cab,” he suggested, turning back to Siren.

“Get a room,” Michelle grumbled, tossing her bag over her shoulder, scoffing at him. Just before she left, she picked up her drink and spilled it across Gambit. “You’re a jerk.”

Siren immediately stepped forward to the girl. “That was rude. Why don’t you go and bang your head on the wall for every night you’ve been alone.”

The Michelle looked incredibly angry, and her feet dragged, but she none the less went to the wall, hitting her head. “One, two, three…”

“That’s good. She was annoying and clingy. Now that she’s gone,” Siren slipped her hand underneath his clothing. “Let’s go and have some fun, shall we?”

_Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons_

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young)

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

Cierra Ramirez _as_ Siren*

China Anne McClain _as_ Oracle*

Georgie Henley _as_ Pix*

Meghan Ory _as_ Mermaid*

  


_The Mansion_

_Westchester, New York_

“ _Mon Dieu,”_ Gambit groaned, rubbing his head. “What did I do last night?”

“I believe the words that you used before sneaking out were ‘going to have some fun for the first time in a Goddamn month’,” Bobby recalled.

“You really don’t remember anything of what you did last night?” Jubilee asked curiously.

“Probably got too drunk,” Rogue shrugged.

“Can you not talk too loudly? It’s all…” Gambit moved his hands around in the air as some sort of explanation. “Echoing.”

“Well that’s what you get,” Kitty shrugged. “I hope for your own safety that Logan didn’t catch you,” she lowered her voice.

Suddenly Kurt bamfed into the room, grabbing the remote. “Good morning!” he flipped on the T.V., turning through channels.

“Morning, Kurt,” Bobby turned his attention back to Gambit. “I don’t know how you can keep getting away with all of this stuff. You know how many times I’ve tried to sneak out? They always find out!”

“Dis one was trained as a thief,” Gambit pointed out. “Sneakin’ in and out of places is a second nature.”

“He ain’ lying,” Rogue agreed. “Saw it all through Bella’s eyes. They aren’ nice when it comes to their training.”  
“It works, don’ it?” Gambit smirked, then winced again.

Kurt stopped on the news channel, then turned to the other students. “Look at zis!”

“Senate member Henry Carl was found dead last night outside of Ivan’s Tavern. Eyewitnesses say that he jumped from the four story building and committed suicide after having a drink with a young girl. Carl is one of the top Political Figures against Mutant rights, his comments and speeches always standing out through-” the reporter announced.

“Another mutant hater? Didn’t...what’s his face...Samuel Lafayette get killed earlier this week?” Jubilee asked.

“Yeah…” Rogue nodded. “He drowned. They found him at the bottom of some river.”

“Even though they hated us, it’s a shame that they died. That and the whole ‘don’t speak ill of the dead’ thing,” Bobby shrugged.

“I think they had it coming,” disagreed Regina, walking into the room. “They made our lives a living Hell, and now they’re in Hell.”

“No need to sugar coat it,” Kurt laughed.

“Well, we’re not the only ones who hate them,” Regina sat down on the couch. “Not by far.”

**Commercial Break**

_The West Wing of the Mansion_

“I found this yesterday,” Matt looked down at his feet, uncomfortable. “I think this was where Shadow set up her base and stuff. It seems to have a secret entrance…” running his hands against the design on the wall, he felt a slight give in the wood, and he pulled a block of it to the side, revealing a dark room.

“Yes…” Charles looked as if he were thinking back to a much easier time. Probably before he started the school. “My father had many secret panic rooms built into the house. I don’t think that I’ll ever find them all. What is inside of it?”

Stepping inside the dark room, Matt felt around for the light, and then pulled down the chain, and the single bulb flickered to life. All around the room were drawings, dark and empty, showing creatures and monsters like Matt had never seen before. He had known that Shadow had some baggage in her, but this...the full extent of her psychotic meltdown within these walls suddenly became clear to him. She had drawn her inner demons, and hung them up on display.

“My lord,” the Professor muttered, looking around. There were apples littering the floor, both ones that she had eaten down to the seed and some that she had destroyed with her mutation. Lots of words and symbols were carved into the wall, including all of the names of students in the school. While some, like Jean and Ororo’s, were carved with anger, the letters sharp, others, like Matt’s, had been done with more precision. “All of this...I never even sensed it,” he wheeled around the room, seeming disappointed in himself as he began to monologue to himself a bit. “I had her under my complete control for so long...I had thought that perhaps she was calming down, that maybe in a year or so I could let her out, try again with a fresh start. I wasn’t anxious to wipe her mind, I’ve always believed that she needed to learn from her mistakes, and that if I wiped her mind I would be taking that chance away from her, or she would fall down the same path again. I don’t know. I had assumed that her mind by this point was lulled into a stupor of sorts. In the first days that she was under my custody here at the Mansion, I knew that she was different, more mature in some ways than other students. When I scanned her mind, I saw anger, but glimmers of hurt. No hope. I wanted to change that. After she was locked away, her mind seemed to be dulled. I could not get a sharp reading from it. She seemed to have shut down…” he paused for a minute, gazing upon the drawings once more. “This...this shows the deep emotional trauma. It cuts so deep that it almost hurts to look at. I cannot believe that I never once saw this within her, that she managed to evade me and bury herself so deep that I never found this part of her. I’m sorry,” the Professor gathered himself again. “You don’t want to hear this. Thank you for showing me this, Matt.”

Matt slowly exited the room, unsure of what to say. He was about to leave when the Professor spoke up again. “Caterina and you had an...interesting relationship. I think that you are only the second person that she did not look upon with immediate hatred. I am curious as to why.”

Matt shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t know,” he turned to leave, then stopped, asking one more question. “Professor, how did you know that she didn’t immediately hate me? She was pretty sarcastic, and she didn’t like me very much. But how do you know that she didn’t immediately hate me?”

“Did you notice,” he replied, “that none of the monsters in the Danger Room seemed to go directly after you?”

_In Ororo’s Classroom_

“Did you see the news?” Jean asked Ororo. “Another anti-mutant man died. He killed himself last night.”

“They seem to be dying left and right. He is the fourth anti-mutant person to die in the past month. One drowning, one with almost all of his bones shattered, and now two killing themselves-don’t you find it a bit suspicious?” Ororo asked.

Jean bit her lip. “In all honesty-yes. At first I thought that maybe it was Magneto taking them out, but he would’ve made it more public. And it’s too neat and clean to be the Brotherhood...maybe it’s something else.”

“Perhaps…” Ororo agreed. “Have you spoken to the Professor about this?”

“He’s too preoccupied right now with Caterina,” sighing, Jean moved her pen across the desk telekinetically. “I still can’t believe all of that. First realizing that she ever existed, those memories...and now knowing what she did, how much she hated us...I didn’t realize that it was ever that deep. Up until she tried to kill me, I’d always assumed that her bark was bigger than her bite.”

“No one could’ve guessed that she was like that,” Ororo plucked a perfectly round and plump apple off of a tree. “She was a little girl. We wanted to be her big sister, protect her. Nobody could see how on the inside…” Ororo cut the apple in half, revealing a rotten interior. “She was too far gone.”

“I think that we should check it out,” Jean said abruptly. “The deaths. There’s something more to this. And I think that if we don’t figure out what’s really happening, more people will die.”

“I agree with you. After my next class, we can go and talk to the Professor about it,” Ororo suggested.

“Perfect,” looking at the clock, Jean stood up, gathering her papers. “I’ve got to get ready for my next class. See you in a little bit.”

“Bye,” Ororo smiled.

_In Scott’s Classroom_

“By combining the terms like so, they cancel each other out, leaving you with…” Scott droned on about something or another math related. Most of the classmates took notes, but the boredom was clear on their faces. After fighting to save the world multiple times, learning math seemed a bit...pointless.

“Gambit,” Rogue whispered from the back of the class. His seat was just a desk across from hers, so she tried not to lean forward and make it obvious when she spoke. “When you went out last night...where did you go?”

“Why, _chère,_ you wanna come with me next time?” he whispered in a flirty reply, although his hangover was still evident.

“Ah was just wonderin’ if ya went to the Tavern where the man killed himself,” Rogue pondered. “Maybe you were there when it happened.”

“Gambit don’ even remember comin’ home last night. Do you really dink dat I’ll remember if somethin’ strange was happenin’?” Gambit chuckled.

“Ah just think that it’s strange, so many mutant haters dyin’ so suddenly,” Rogue said lightly.

“Like Regina said,” Gambit quoted, “we aren’t the only ones who hate them.”

“You two,” Scott had stopped talking, and was staring at the pair. “Do you want to come up and teach the lesson?”

“No sir,” Rogue answered, turning scarlet.

“Well, then be quiet,” ordered Scott, and after he was sure that they weren’t going to talk again, he continued on with the lesson. Rogue bent down, continuing to take notes, a strand of white hair falling across her face. For a brief moment, Remy watched her, before turning back to his own paper.

Strange indeed.

**Commercial Break**

_Ivan’s Tavern_

_New York, New York_

Jean and Ororo stepped into the bar, looking around. There wasn’t any tape that read ‘crime scene’ or ‘keep away’. There wasn’t any shattered glass that indicated there had been trouble before the death. Not a speck out of place. If it weren’t for the news report, Jean wouldn’t have been able to tell that there’d ever been a death here.

Ordering herself and Ororo a drink, Jean sat down at the table, looking over the menu. “I can hardly tell that anything ever happened her. The bartender doesn’t even seem to be phased, and he said that he was the one working last night when it happened. It clearly wasn’t a spectacle.”

“So if his death was just to kill him, not to set an example, what’s to suggest that it wasn’t suicide? The only strange thing about this is that there have been other deaths for anti-mutant people,” Ororo pointed out.

“That is true,” Jean agreed, taking a sip from her drink. “I just feel like there’s something more to this, you know? I can almost sense it, something sickly sweet lingering in the air. This is definitely more than just your average suicide.”

_The Mansion_

“Have you seen Jean?” Kitty asked. “I can’t find her, and I have a question about number four on our homework…”

“I think that she and Ororo went out,” Jubilee answered.

“Can you blame them?” Bobby asked. “If I were a teacher I would go out every single day.”

“Some of us seem to do zat even if we aren’t a teacher,” Kurt pointed out, shooting a look towards Gambit.

“It’s called living. You should try it sometime,” Gambit furrowed his eyebrows. “I just wish that I could remember what happened last night. I know that something must’ve happened, I just don’t know what.”

“You ’fraid that you did something that you’ll regret?” Rogue sat down, looking from student to student.

“Gambit does lots of dings he’ll regret,” he smirked towards Rogue, who rolled her eyes.

“Good lord,” shaking her head, she turned to the other students. “Y’all remember that newscast that we saw this morning?” she asked.

“Yes…” Jubilee trailed off, nervous. “What are you planning?”

“Ah’ve been looking into it, and ah don’t think that it was a suicide. Ah think that something bigger is being planned. And ah think that we need to go and look into it,” suggested Rogue.

“Shouldn’t we talk to the Professor about this first?” Dan suddenly spoke up, looking away from his phone and causing Jubilee to jump.

“Jesus, I didn’t even see you,” she put a hand over her heart. “But he has a point. The Professor might know something that that we don’t.”

“C’mon, guys,” Regina smiled deviously. “Live a little. Mississippi’s right, we should check this out. It’ll be fun.”

“Have we ever gone to do something like this when it actually worked?” Bobby asked.

“A lot,” Jubilee agreed, but you could see the obvious excitement growing on her face. “But hey, if you fail, try, try, try again,” she quoted. “I’m with Regina and Rogue.”

“Gambit?” Rogue asked, and a sly smile grew on his face.

“You know dis one is never someone to step away from a challenge,” he proclaimed. “Let’s do it.”

“I’m in, too,” Kitty nodded.

“Me, too,” Piotr added.

“C’mon,” Kitty urged the ice mutant. “What if we actually make a difference?”

“Well…” he looked at the other members. “Our current Danger Room punishment is almost over. It wouldn’t feel right to let it end.”

“Count me in, too,” Dan tucked his phone away.

“Yay!” Jubilee squealed. “This is going to be awesome.”

“Ah mean, there’s a decent chance that we’ll be fighting for our lives, but that’s parta the job, right?” Rogue grinned.

Standing up, the mutants all dispersed to their rooms, gathering some supplies and agreeing to meet downstairs in five minutes, ready to go.

_Skyline Hotel_

_Penthouse Floor_

Siren walked in, tossing a bag on the counter. “I got us some stuff,” pulling out a painting, she walked over to the wall, hanging it up.

“These aren’t exactly necessities,” a girl with dark brown hair and pale skin pointed out.

“Mack, do you really think that I would just get paintings?” she pulled out a gun, tossing it over. “I got some fun stuff, too. And they’re going to bring us our dinner around four.”

“Did you get me new clothes, like I asked?” a petite girl walked into the room, looking through the bag and pulling out a dress.

“Yup. This little boutique on Fifth just gave it to me as soon as I explained how dire the situation was,” Siren pulled out more clothes. “Here you go.”

The short girl snorted. “Gave it to you?”

“They wanted to,” Siren said innocently. “Where’s Kelsey?” she asked, looking around the room.

“In her bedroom, drawing,” answered Mack. “She had another vision about tonight. I expect she’s almost done, so we’ll have all of the facts that we need.”

“Perfect,” smiling, Siren clicked another gun, turning the safety on and off. “We’ll need all the facts that we can get. We can’t drown him or crush him, and I certainly don’t want another suicide. We have to do this the old fashioned way, otherwise they’ll be a pattern.”

“Reese-” the petite girl started. “Are you sure that it’s a good idea to already do another killing? The other guy just died last night.”

“Gabbie, the vote is Saturday,” Siren pointed out. “We need to get as many of the mutant haters out of it as possible. You know what will happen if we don’t.”

“I know, I know,” Gabbie nodded.

“You saw how they acted when our people were slaughtered. When our family died in front of us. These people-they wanted to thank them!” Siren slammed the gun onto the table. “If we don’t do something now, we’ll all be dead before we get another chance.”

“Then let’s see what Kelsey has got for us, then,” Mack walked over to the pitch black room.

“We have to do this,” Siren said again before following.

**Commercial Break**

_Alongside the Bronx River_

“Well,” Bobby looked at his phone. “It has been a total of forty three minutes, and we haven’t gotten a death threat from Logan.”

“Elsa,” Regina turned to Bobby. “Give me your phone.”

“Did you just call me Elsa?” Bobby scoffed.

“Your phone,” Regina repeated, her eyes narrowed. Sighing and handing it over, Regina stuck it in her bra. “You can get this back when we’re done investigating. Otherwise you’ll just keep checking it and we won’t get anywhere.”

“My phone!” Bobby exclaimed. “Why did you-you can’t wash a phone!” he whimpered.

“I didn’t want you to try and get it back. Jesus Christ, grow a pair,” Regina shook her head.

“This is where that one senator drowned,” Kitty bent down, looking into the water. “They found him at the bottom. I looked into his autopsy report. He wasn’t knocked unconscious, he wasn’t so drunk that he just fell in, it was just as if something pulled him down.”

“So someone’s killin’ the mutant haters,” Rogue bent down besides Kitty. “Maybe it’s a mutant who can breath under water.”

“It’s not like dere’s a lack of different mutants,” crouching down, Gambit looked alongside the edge. There were several small plastic things sticking out from the edge of the pier. One of them was broken, and Gambit ran his hand along the broken edge gently. “Look ’ere. It was ripped off. When he was being pulled down, he didn’t go without a fight.”

“Wow. Whoever pulled him down probably had a lot of strength,” Jubilee mused. “But if it’s in the water, would that make it harder to find fingerprints?”

“Harder? Yes,” confirmed Gambit. “But impossible? Naw, as long as someone has the right supplies, you could find them.”

“What are ‘the right supplies’?” questioned Rogue.

“Um, friends?” Piotr interrupted. “Do you see that?”

“See what?” Kitty asked, bending down further to get a good look. “There was a glimmer of a...tail. Like a really large fish.”

“What?” Jubilee chucked nervously.

“Well, I thought it was a really large fish, but if it’s a mutant that did this, then maybe it’s…” Kitty looked up smiling towards Jubilee.

“No way,” Regina shook her head. “No, freaking, way.”

Suddenly a semi-gilled hand shot out of the water, grabbing Kitty, who was still leaning far forward, and pulled her down, dragging her under. “Katya!” Piotr exclaimed, instantaneously putting on his metal skin and diving in.

The gilled mutant pulled Kitty deeper and deeper. Piotr sunk quickly in his metal skin and caught up to her. She kept struggling, but the gilled mutant, who Piotr could now see that from waist down she did, indeed, have a tail, was stronger, pulling her down. Piotr, holding his breath still, used all of his considerable force, and yanked Kitty from the mutant’s arms. Demetalizing, he swam up to the surface, Kitty in his arms. Throwing her onto the deck, Kitty rolled over and coughed up water, and Piotr climbed back up.

Suddenly, as if on a whim, Rogue ripped her glove off, grabbing the mutant who was just below the surface. She let go after a second however, and the mutant swam away. “She’s getting away!” Regina exclaimed.

“If ah took her, her friends would realize that something was wrong, and we wouldn’t be able to do what we’re going to do next,” Rogue’s skin rippled slightly from absorbing the mutant girl’s powers, but she didn’t fully transform.

“And what is that?” Bobby asked.

“Ah grabbed her so ah could get some of her memories,” closing her eyes, Rogue could feel the faintest glimmer of the girl’s psyche. Opening them, she turned to her fellow classmates. “Her name is Mackenzie. She lives with three other girls in a penthouse. Ah have the address. They were the ones who have been killin’ the anti mutant senators. They have another planned for tonight, sniper style.”

“Wow,” Jubilee nodded in respect. “Anything else up in that head of yours?”

“Yeah,” Rogue looked even further back, until she came across a familiar setting. She’d seen it on the news. “She was part of the Morlocks, before they were killed. She and her friends escaped, and they’ve been living in the penthouse since.”

Gambit paled, then looked down momentarily. “Who are the other girls?”

“There’s someone who control’s people with her voice, someone who can see the future, someone who can change their size, and her,” said Rogue.

“That was smart of you,” a sopping wet Kitty praised. “Using your power to get information.”

“Well, if ah don’t use it like that, what use does it have?” Rogue smiled to herself.

“We should get going,” Regina suggested. “Find them before they try and make an escape.”

“Yeah,” Kitty nodded, shivering. She and Piotr stood close to each other, sharing the warmth.

“If only Rin was here,” Regina said suddenly, looking down. “She could just make all of it dry up, or something.”

Everyone was silent for a moment before Jubilee nodded. “Yeah, she would.”

Dan broke the silence. “C’mon guys, let’s go,” he and everyone else started walking towards the hotel, except for Gambit. He stood there for a moment, thinking back, then caught up with everyone else.

_Ivan’s Tavern_

_New York, New York_

“Do you know where the security cameras are?” Ororo asked Jean. “We can watch it, see if maybe he was pushed.”

“Eyewitnesses said that he jumped,” Jean pointed out.

“Eyewitnesses can lie, if they’re threatened. Or a mutant could’ve forced him. You know there are mutants who could’ve made him,” Ororo reminded her. A gentle gust of wind blew a door open enough to see a computer system inside, showing a live feed of the bar. “There. Do you think that you can cause a sufficient enough distraction to allow us time to go in there and check it out?”

Instead of answering, Jean just smiled, then waved her hand subtly. A shelf crashed down, bringing a row of pictures in frames to the floor along with it. The bartender swore, and he and a few other employees rushed over to clean up the broken glass. “Let’s go,” gracefully standing up, she and the weather witch went over to the room where the computer was.

Jean clicked on the date, revealing a selection of dates that went back a month. Selecting the date and then fast forwarding to the time of death, Jean paused it when she saw a familiar cajun flirting with a brown haired girl. “Is that Gambit?” Jean turned to Ororo, who nodded.

“Looks as if somebody managed to get out without us knowing last night. I will be sure to inform Logan of this upon our return. He will definitely want to...confer with Gambit about it,” Ororo laughed, leaning forward and pointed to the balcony. “There he is.”

“With a young girl,” Jean noted, watching as they talked to each other. The sound could not be made out, but she could see the earnest smile upon the girl’s face. It stayed there as the man stood on the balcony, and she nodded encouragingly as he prepared to jump. Once it appeared that he had truly fallen, the girl dropped her wine glass, screaming. Pausing the video, Jean turned to Ororo. “That’s our girl. I’m going to contact the Professor, so he can see her face and see if he can find her before we return.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” with a few clicks, she exited the video and returned to the live feed. “Let’s go.”

**Commercial Break**

_Skyline Hotel_

_Penthouse Floor_

Mack burst in, sopping wet and angry. Gabbie looked up from drawing, and a drafty looking girl pulled her gaze away from the window to look at her.

“What happened, Mack?” asked Gabbie.

“People were investigating the death, so I tried to make an example of one of them. They were mutants. Where’s Reese?” she asked suddenly. “I told her that this was a bad idea, she wasn’t careful enough.”

“She’s in her room,” the girl spoke up.

Mack suddenly noticed her, and rushed over to sit next to her. “Kels-did you see anything? About the mutants who were investigating the death?”

Kelsey looked away for a moment, staring into a distance. “I can’t see much...it’s all sort of foggy. Can you give me a pencil and paper?” she asked.

Grabbing it from the nearby coffee table, Mack handed the supplies to Kelsey, who began to draw quickly. First she drew the glass door, shattered across the floor. Slowly adding in some people, the attempted to fill in the blanks. Her hand moved quicker and quicker, jumping around to fill in the scene, when suddenly her pencil snapped, and she looked up with a jolt. “Four minutes and twenty-two seconds.”

“What?” Gabbie asked, walking over to her.

“The mutants who were investigating, they’ll be here soon. I’m going to get Reese, we’ll need her...there’s a few paths, I need to discuss with her what to do,” jumping from her seat, she darted into a nearby bedroom.

“I don’t know where we’d be without that girl,” Mack sighed.

“Probably dead,” Gabbie admitted. Then standing up, she pulled out the guns, as well as some of the knifes. “I’m going to go and get changed. Goodness knows I can’t fight in this. You should load yourself up with weapons.”

_Outside the Skyline Hotel_

“Are you sure that this is the place?” Kitty confirmed, looking up at the towering hotel.

“Yeah,” Rogue nodded. “Penthouse floor.”

“We have to be careful,” Bobby warned. “One of them can control people. Here,” he handed out a packet of earplugs to each of the X-Men. “I think that if we can’t hear what she’s saying, then she won’t be able to control us.”

“Certainly, but it will also make it a hell of a lot harder to hear them coming if they attack from behind,” Regina pointed out.

“We’ll use the attack signals that Logan taught us,” suggested Bobby.

“Wow, all of those stupid sessions actually paid off. I always thought that they were a bit pointless,” mused Jubilee.

“Do we have a plan?” asked Kitty. “Aside from, you know, ‘don’t die’? What are we even trying to accomplish? Take them to the Mansion? Take them out? Turn them in?”

“Katya has a point,” agreed Piotr. “We need a better plan. Or at least a goal.”

“Maybe we can go in there, see if they attack?” suggested Dan.

“But if they do, then what?” asked Kitty.

“Ah think that we should turn them in,” Rogue stared up at the final floor of the slightly menacing hotel. “To the authorities.”

“But won’t they just use this as proof on the mutant registration act?” Kitty reminded them. “Mutants killing important people of power? I can already see the headline.”

“But if we turn them in, then they know that we’re on their side, that we can see reason. That we’re not all like that,” Rogue countered.

“I agree with Rogue,” Gambit spoke up for the first time in a while. “Show dat we’re not all evil, dat we can behave like good little citizens.”

“Well, if we don’t do that, what other choice to we have?” Regina opened up the bag with her earplugs. “I’m with the southerners.”

“Does anyone aside from Kitty object?” Bobby asked, looking around.

“I don’t object!” exclaimed Kitty. “I just can’t help but see how everything we do to try and help the world is just used against us.”

“Well, Kit,” Rogue gently put her gloved hand on Kitty’s arm. “Ah think that that’s gonna happen no matter what we do. No use letting it stop us from doing what we can.”

Kitty softened. “I know. Believe me, I know. It just makes me sad sometimes, knowing that everything we do will still affect people negatively.”

“Now that we got that encouraging speech out of the way, let’s go and actually see who’s arses we’re going to have to kick,” Regina led the way into the hotel, inserting her earplugs.

_On the Streets of New York_

“I’d say that that little outing was successful, wouldn’t you?” Jean spoke positively as she and Ororo walked towards their cars

“Definitely. We know who the killer is, Charles is doing research on her, and we got some girl time away from the Mansion,” Ororo sighed, content.

“Here we are,” Jean unlocked their car, sliding into the driver's seat. For a brief moment, and echo slithered across Jean’s mind, thoughts that were too far away for her to hear clearly, but close enough for her to sense some...familiarity to them. “Do you hear that?” she asked, looking out the window.

“Hear what?” Ororo asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Jean dismissed it. “I just thought I heard something. Nevermind.”

_In the Elevator of the Skyline Hotel_

Gambit flipped his cards in his hands, waiting in the elevator with the other mutants as it rose each level. The words kept echoing in his head ‘they were Morlocks’ and ‘there was a massacre’. He was sure that Rogue had said something else about their past, but that was what stood out for him. What that sick twisted version of a man had made him do, the debt that he had paid....he hadn’t asked then, and Gambit almost wished that he could just go back to the blissful unawareness of it all. Sinister had always been there, in the back of his head, but Remy had been able to push it back far enough where he could convince himself to forget about his debt but now...he’d lost track of the sleepless nights, their faces as they watched their loved ones die, as they died. And, oh god, Rin, who had somehow gotten mixed up in all of it, nearly died, then was taken away from the X-Men. It was the look that she had given him, down there in the midst of it all, the flashes of confusion, worry, and assurance that passed over her face in a matter of seconds, tossing him the little mutant and yelling to protect her. And then she almost died. She had unwavering faith in him, that he was one of the good guys. Remy was sure that many of the team, even if they didn’t want to admit it, had at least some of the same faith in him.

As they hit the top floor, Gambit pulled out his retractable bo staff, extending it, and Bobby iced up his hands, preparing himself. The elevator dinged, the doors sliding open to reveal a long hallway, with several doors. Rogue motioned with her hands for them to follow, and led them to the end of the hal. She tried the door to no prevail. ‘It’s locked’, she tapped, using morse code. Moving as if she was going to rip the door from its hinges, but Gambit touched her shoulder, then turned to Iceman, pointing to the lock. He nodded with understanding, freezing the lock. Then Gambit motioned to Jubilee, whose face lit up as she created miniature fireworks, slipping them in the locks. They popped, the door sliding open with a slight creak that none of the X-Men could hear.

Tiptoing in, at first the X-Men could see nothing. Bobby looked down, noticing the shifting in the floor. He barely had enough time to throw a wall of ice up to protect his teammates, freezing the bullets mid air. There was a moment where nobody moved, until a giant hand smashed the ice down, and all hell broke loose.

**Commercial Break**

_Emperor’s New Clothes by Panic! at the Disco plays over next few scenes_

The giant hand was connected to an even bigger body. Gabbie was several times her size, at least twelve feet tall. She backhanded at the mutants, shoving them against the wall. She tried again to pick them up again, but this time Shadowcat phased herself, Iceman, and Gambit through her hand. Rogue flew up, avoiding the confrontation with the larger than life hand.

Bullets began hitting the ceiling plaster around her, and faster than Rogue would’ve thought was possible, she tumbled herself down, sweeping the legs out from underneath of Mack. They wrestled for a moment, Mack using leverage to help her combat Rogue’s excessive strength.

Meanwhile, Gambit had begun to battle Kelsey, but it was no use. She seemed to be highly trained in gymnastics, and she could see every possible move that he could make, and countered each one. Twisting his bo staff around, Gambit attempted to use it to derail the mutant, but she continued to hold her own.

“Need any help?” Kelsey shouted over to a still struggling Mack, who was fighting Rogue.

“No thanks, Oracle, I’ve got this,” suddenly finding the leverage, Mack flipped Rogue over to her back. This time, however, she was smart, and didn’t touch Rogue’s skin and began to strangle her through her shirt. Headbutting her, Rogue pushed up from underneath of her, preparing for hand to hand combat.

On the other side of the room, Pix was battling both Colossus and Shatter. Her larger size gave her an advantage over the other mutants, but they still put up a rather good fight. Piotr had his skin all metalled up, and swung at her with all of his considerable strength. At the last second she shrunk down so they could barely see her, and in their moment of confusion, she began to attack them from every angle.

That left Bolt and Jubilee against Siren. Her usual form of attack was rendered useless against their earplugs, not that she didn’t try, shouting orders at them. Dan would charge up from the lights and blast at her, and Jubilee would through her little plasma fireworks at her. Siren moved with a graceful elegance that reminded Jubilee of ballerinas, twisting and turning, everything connected. Where Jubilee would try to through plasma at her, she would easily counter. The moments where Dan’s electricity connected with her barely seemed to phase her.

Oracle had Gambit pinned up against the wall, his bo staff pressed up against his throat. Rogue and Mack fought tirelessly in hand to hand combat, moving so quickly it was hard to see. Both sides seemed equally matched, neither giving up, equivalent in strength and speed.

Suddenly Pix grew back to her large size in the blink of an eye, shoving Regina so her head hit the wall with a resounding thud. Despite the earplugs having blocked all previous sound, everybody in the room stopped what they were doing and clutched their ears against the ringing. The earplugs vibrated so much that they slipped out, leaving the X-Men defenseless. All of the glass in the room shattered, exploding from the doors and the mirrors. Regina pulled herself up, leaning on the wall as it stopped.

Kitty made a dive for her earplugs, but was stopped by Siren. “Don’t move,” she ordered, and Kitty froze, her eyes following the female mutant. “None of you move.”

Siren walked over to her teammates, briefly checking if they were okay before returning to the X-Men. “You attacked us,” she declared. “Tell me why. Be honest,” she turned to Jubilee. “You. Go.”

“We found out that you were the group who were killing the senators. We needed to stop you,” spilled Jubilee.

“Were you going to kill us?” Mack asked.

“Answer her,” ordered Siren.

“No,” responded a nervous looking Jubilee. “Just incapacitate you.”

“I’ll never understand how mutants can fight against other mutants like this,” Siren threw her hands up in the air. “It’s like we’re hated no matter what we do, even by our own kind. We try to fight back, you come and attack us. We live peacefully out of the way of humans, you come and slaughter us.”

“You mean the mutant massacre?” Rogue asked.

“Yes,” Siren stepped closer to the Mississippian mutant, leaning in towards her. “They came down on us, took some of us captive and killed the rest.”

“Ah’m sorry that that happened,” Rogue truly did sound sincere. “Ah really am. But you killin’ people like that, it ain’t gonna fix anything. They’re just gonna think that they’re right about ya.”

“What’s your name?” Siren seethed. “Remember, I don’t like liars.”

“Rogue,” she said.

“What’s your real name, ‘Rogue’?” rephrased Siren.

“Anna-Marie,” hesitated Rogue, biting her lip so hard it drew blood.

“I have a question for y’all,” Gambit interrupted from across the room. “If you can do dis, control people, den why were you ever livin’ in the sewers?”

“I was shunned,” Siren turned to face him. “We all were. Going down there, it was the only family that I ever got. I could help them, get them the luxuries that they couldn’t have before. Nobody can resist my voice,” she looked over Gambit, a smirk on her face. “But you know how that is. The temptation that I provide. Last night I gave you more than a taste of what I have to offer,” she bit her lip seductively, slyly smiling at him.

“Sorry to tell you this sweetheart, but I can hardly remember anything from last night,” Gambit shrugged. “You can’t have been dat good.”

A look of spite crossed her face, but before she could say a word, Rogue grabbed her bare arm, draining her until she fell unconscious. A sickly sweet feeling spread throughout her as she felt the mutant’s powers take hold inside of her. “Y’all can move, now,” she told her teammates, then turned to the other mutants. “Except you. You three,” she looked at Mack, Gabbie, and Kelsey-who did not seem in the least bit surprised at the turn of events-in the eye. “Stay where you are.”

“Thanks,” Kitty got up from the uncomfortable position she had been frozen in. “How did you break free from her hold?”

“Ah dunno,” shrugged Rogue. “Ah guess that she was so busy taunting me she wasn’t focusing as much.”

“What should we do with them?” asked Dan.

“I don’t think that we should kill them,” Jubilee said. “They were just doing what they thought was right. Their entire family was killed, can you blame them for wanting revenge?”

“But we cannot just let them go around killing people,” interjected Piotr. “More people will be at stake.”

“How about this?” suggested Rogue, who turned to face the three mutants. “You can continue living your life here, and even keep using your powers to get things. But you’re not allowed to kill anyone again. If you ever kill someone again, ah want you to go and turn yourself into the authorities. Don’t listen to Siren if she ever tells you to kill someone, and if she tries to, turn her into the authorities. Understood?” the three mutants nodded.

“How do you know that when Siren wakes up she won’t override it?” asked Bobby.

“Ah don’t,” admitted Rogue. “But we need to do somethin’. Got any better ideas?”

“I guess not,” he looked around at all the damage in the room. “We should return to the Mansion. We accomplished the mission.”

“Yay!” exclaimed Jubilee. “I wish that we could brag about this,” she added.

“I think that they probably know that we’re gone,” Kitty pointed out. “The Professor probably knew minutes after we left.”

“True,” Jubilee pouted. “My back is already hurting from all of the Danger Room sessions I can see in our future.”

Smiling to each other, the X-Men left the room, their feet crunching on the glass. Just before they reached the door, Rogue turned around, calling out, “Y’all can move when she wakes up.”

**Commercial Break**

_In the Living Room of the Mansion_

_When Can I See You Again by Owl City plays until End Credits_

“So,” Logan marched in, looking at all of the students. “The Professor tells me that you guys missed having Danger Room sessions with me, and recommended I give you some more. You know, if you love my teaching methods so much, all you had to do was ask.”

Kitty winced. “You guys found out.”

“Yes we found out!” he burst. “How many times do we have to tell you that you cannot sneak out like that! You guys could get killed out there, and you’re not even fully trained!”

“Logan-” started Jubilee.

“If you guys continue to act like this, I will personally see to it that you guys never leave the Danger Room for two months!” Logan continued on, ignoring Jubilee’s attempts to cut in.

“Logan-” she tried again.

“You are supposed to be setting an example for the other kids! This is getting ridiculous. At some point you have to grow up and behave yourselves!” he huffed. “What do you have to say for yourselves?”

A smile crept onto Jubilee’s face. “We completed the mission. Took care of the people who were killing the senators.”

“You-what?” Logan did a double take.

“Took care of them,” repeated Jubilee. “We made sure that they’ll never kill again.”

“Huh,” grunted Logan, looking at all of the students again. “Don’t think that changes anything.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” smiled Kitty.

“I’ll see you all bright and early tomorrow morning, six thirty,” he said before leaving.

“I have to say,” Regina said as she balanced a ping pong ball on a paddle. “It does feel kind of satisfaction, knowing that we actually finished a mission.”

“Maybe one day we’ll be doing our missions with the Professor’s permission for once,” suggested Kitty.

“That would certainly be a nice change of pace,” agreed Piotr, who stared at Kitty for a moment until they both blushed and looked away.

“Ah can’t believe that you and Siren girl got together last night,” Rogue mused. “Ah thought that you were always goin’ on ’bout your incredible willpower?”

“Why, _chère,_ you jealous?” Gambit questioned, facing Rogue full on. “Wish dat you had joined us?”

Rogue flushed a bright red. “Ah don’ know where you get that notion, Remy Lebeau!”

Gambit chuckled, then looked at the television, while Rogue continued to stare at him, a depressed looked crossing her face momentarily as she tugged at her gloves. Looking down at her hands, Rogue took a deep breath before looking back up at the television alongside everyone else.

_Unknown Location_

Reese sat up with a gasp, her hands chained to the ground in a dark, damp cellar. Attempting to pull away, she looked past the glass, trying to recollect her memories of the past night. She’d fought with those other mutants, and then…

Noticing for the first time the guard on the other side of the thin glass, she opened her mouth to order him to let her go, when she noticing a throbbing pain in her throat. No sound came out. Gaping, she tried again to speak, with no success. Not even a whimper.

Feeling at her throat desperately with her hands, she traced a scar across her throat. Suddenly she connected the difference in the feeling of her throat. Her vocal cords had literally been cut out of her. Banging on the glass mercilessly, she tried to scream again and again with no success. Sliding down hopelessly, she cried, her chest moving with the silent sobs of the rest of her body. Mouthing ‘help’ again and again, she leaned against the glass, unknown to the fact that she was being watched.

A cruel laughter echoed through the room, followed by the scratching of a pen. “Perfect,” murmured the voice. “Perfect.”

**End Credits**

Promo for Next Episode: ‘Family Issues’

When the Professor returns to Scotland to reunite with an old flame, he discovers that a long kept secret from him is wreaking havoc with unmeasurable strength and power.


	14. Family Issues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Promo for this Episode:  
> When the Professor returns to Scotland to reunite with an old flame, he discovers that a secret long kept from him is wreaking havoc with unmeasurable strength and power.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The increasingly popular show 'The X-Men: Classified' is proud to announce that they will be having a crossover episode with the Avengers after finally sealing the deal!
> 
> A/N:  
> As always, this story's format is inspired by the amazing 'ARogueGambit7 's Mutant High: Revolutionary. Go read it, I promise you'll love it.

**Season One, Episode Fourteen**

**Family Issues**

_ Glasgow, Scotland _

“Have you seen Ian, Mum?” asked a young boy, his accent thick. 

“Not since last night,” his mother responded. “Why don’t you go and look for him outside, David?” she suggested. “He might’ve gotten caught in a tree or something.”

“Sure thing,” he nodded, kissing her cheek. “Love you.”

“Love you, too,” watching him until he disappeared from her view, the woman sighed happily. 

Meanwhile, outside, David stepped through several fallen leaves, looking around and up in the trees. “Ian?” he called out. “Ian, where are you?” after hearing no response, he ventured further into the woods. “Ian, can you hear me?”

A stick cracked behind him, and David whipped around, but saw nobody. “Ian? Was that you?”

He felt a sudden stabbing sensation in his head, and he clutched his temples, falling to his knees.

_ At the Mansion _

“I mean, after all of the recent attacks, doesn’t it make sense to increase the amount of control on the weapons that are sold?” Kitty reasoned.

“I think that that’s just more of a reason to let more people buy guns as self defense,” argued Regina. “If there’s going to be an attack, people need to be able to fight back.”

“What ’bout limiting who buys it? Rather than how many are sold?” suggested Rogue. “Don’t let people buy a gun if you think that they’re a terrorist.”

“But sometimes it isn’t as simple as that,” the Professor said gently. “Sometimes, as we all know, people are prejudice, and-” his phone began to ring out from his pocket. Looking at his caller ID, a momentary look of confusion passed over his face. “I’m sorry, but I am afraid that I have to take this,” moving over to the opposite side of the room, he pressed a finger to one ear, and his finger against the other. “Gabrielle?”

“Charles?” the scottish woman’s voice was panicked, thick with tears. “I need your help. My son is missing.”

“What?” he burrowed his eyebrows. “When did it happen?”

“He went out last night,” described Gabrielle. “I heard him scream, but I can’t find him anywhere. I think...I think that he’s been kidnapped.”

“I am sorry. I will fly over as soon as I am able to assist you. But may I ask, after all these years, why call now? Why me?” he asked.

“That’s just it, Charles,” Gabrielle hesitated. “He’s yours.”

“He’s-what?” Charles gasped, nearly dropping the phone.

_ Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons _

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young) 

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

Thomas Brodie-Sangster

Hayden Christensen

Casey Simpson

Kelly MacDonald

 

_ In the Meeting Room _

“I just can’t believe that she never told me,” the Professor rubbed his between his eyebrows anxiously. 

“It’s not your fault, Professor,” counseled Jean. “You had no way of knowing.”

“I am one of the most powerful telepaths in the world. I should’ve sensed it,” he contradicted.

“You didn’t know to look,” Jean sighed. “When are you leaving?”

“I have the Blackbird ready. I’m going to leave within the hour,” the Professor said. 

“Do you want us to accompany you on the mission?” Scott asked.

“I think that it would be most helpful, thank you,” he smiled gratefully.

“And what about the students?” Ororo asked.

“I am considering having them join me,” Logan, who had been drinking a beer while leaning against the wall, choked on his drink.

“I’m sorry, what?” he had a bewildered expression on his face. “Those rugrats?”

“Not all of them,” the Professor assured him. “Just the older ones. I think that it’s high time they were involved in more real life scenarios outside of the Mansion.”

“Like there’s not enough inside the Mansion?” Logan replied sarcastically.

“If they’re to grow and mature, they need to be put in situations where there are more consequences. Also,” he added. “I think that if we started involving them more, inviting them on missions, they would behave more, stop sneaking out.”

Logan snorted, but didn’t argue further with the Professor. “If you say so.”

“I think that I should go and tell them now, give them time to get their excitement out and pack,” Ororo proposed. 

_ In the Rec Room _

“I’m never going to need to turn on a TV again, this is better than any telenovela,” Regina chuckled into her mug of coffee.

“I still can’t believe that he has a son,” Kitty shook her head for what seemed like the millionth time. 

“Well, it’s not like he knew,” Jubilee pointed out. 

“I wonder who kidnapped him,” Piotr mused aloud. “If he is the son of the Professor, he’s probably a mutant. A pretty strong one, too.”

“Maybe not,” Remy shrugged. “Dis one barely understands genetics, but it’s possible for a mutant to have a normal kid. Just ain’t likely.” 

“Wow,” Rogue gasped sarcastically. “You actually do have a brain somewhere up in there.”

“Dat ain’t all I have,” Gambit winked.

“True,” Rogue shot back. “You also have an enormous superiority complex and all the charm of a swamp rat.”

“Aww,  _ chère,  _ you wound me,” he clutched his heart, pretending to fall back.

“You keep talkin’ like that and ah’m gonna smack you from here to Tokyo,” she sassed.

“Bet dat’s what you say to all da  _ hommes _ ,” he smirked as Rogue blushed a deep scarlet. 

“Cajun, ah swear to God-” she started, but was interrupted by Ororo.

“The Professor is leaving for Scotland to help look for his-his son,” Ororo looked at each of them in the eye. “Which you probably already knew. But he has decided to take you with him.”

“He-what?” Jubilee did a double take. “Seriously?”

“Yes,” Ororo confirmed. “He thinks that it would be best for you to get some real life experience out in the real world. I suggest that you all go up and pack. He will be leaving within the hour.”

“Eeep!” exclaimed Jubilee as soon as Professor Monroe was out of sight. “I can’t believe that we get to go to Scotland!”

“What is in Scotland?” asked Piotr, confused. “Aside from the Professor’s son?”

“I don’t know, but it sure beats sitting around here and doing classwork,” shrugging, Jubilee leapt up from her seat over and headed towards the hallway.

“She has a point,” Kitty agreed, as she and the rest of them slowly stood up and filed away to their rooms.

**Commercial Break**

There was screaming, lots of it, blood was everywhere. One by one, the Morlocks were cut down, the men, women and children alike. The carnage was unbelievable. Fear coursed throughout the room, as parents would try to get their children to safety, but where slashed down almost immediately. Kids ran to try and get to their parents, or would just collapse in on themselves, sobbing and crying for their parents. Few mutants were dragged away, but most were just murdered in cold blood.

“No!” a young mutant boy with large horns ripped free from a green haired woman, only to be grabbed and stabbed in the chest by none other than Sabertooth himself.

The room stunk with death as scene before scene of death and destruction cut through the air. Blood was spilled across the ground, shining and slowly spreading. People would cry, their tears mixing in with the blood. A feeling akin to that of a cornered animal took over, and suddenly Rogue was in a corner, her voice burning as she tried to shout, to say something. But the screams overwhelmed her, burying her voice in that of the others. A slender woman made her way over to her, a wicked grin on her face, her intents clear upon her face. Making a dash towards the ladder, she was yanked down, falling-

Rogue sat up with a gasp, looking out the window. The Blackbird was somewhere over the Atlantic, but was gaining quickly, and in the distance she could see a speck of land that was rapidly growing. 

“You okay,  _ chère? _ ” Remy asked, putting his gloved hand over her own.

For a moment, when she turned and looked at him in the eyes, she looked like a cornered animal. But she then visibly relaxed and nodded. “Just a nightmare. Left over from absorbin’ that Siren girl.”

Remy looked conflicted, then he said “Dey have a lot of bad memories? Somethin’ tell me dat dey aren’t good with people.”

Rogue chuckled, nodding. “Ah can tell, too. But it ain’t that. It was ’bout the Mutant Massacre. She was down there.”

Remy’s expression darkened. “Dat certainly ain’t somethin’ that you want in your head.”

“No,” she agreed, then noticed their hands and awkwardly pulled away. “These certainly are dark times.”

“We’re about to land,” Jean called back. It was ultimately decided that only she, Ororo and Scott would accompany them and the Professor on the trip, as Logan would be needed back at the Mansion. 

_ Unknown Location, Scotland _

“It’s workin’,” a tall shadow of a guy stood over David, who was chained to a cement wall. “Dear ol’ daddy will be here soon enough.”

“Please,” David begged, pulling at the chains. “I never met ’im. He left us before I was born.”

“And doesn’t that make you angry?” an unknown force suddenly lifted David up. “He just deserted you, never looked back?”

“Lucas!” a flirty female voice shouted down from above, accompanied by heavy metal music. “C’mon and join us.”

Scoffing, Lucas dropped David down to the ground. “See ya’ later,” he walked mentally moved a large hunk of stone out of the way, sealing it behind him as he walked up the carved in stairs, leaving David alone to scream. “Maybe when I do you’ll see reason.”

_ Gabrielle Haller’s House _

_ Glasgow, Scotland _

“I can’t believe that you never told me about this!” exclaimed the Professor, again, beside the table. “I had a right to know that I have a son.”

“I didn’t want to know that his father was too busy studying mutants to care about him!” Gabrielle huffed. 

“You always did blame everything on my studies. Is that what you told him?” he asked.

“No,” she sniffed. “He doesn’t know anything about you. I wouldn’ tell him. He just knows that you left us before he was born.”

The Professor looked like he wanted to say something, but he held his tongue. 

“How about Scott and I look around in his room?” Jean suggested. “See if maybe he left something behind that leaves a hint to where he went?”

“The Police already looked around, but you can too if you feel it will help,” Gabrielle shrugged, her eyes red-rimmed. 

“Sometimes it takes a little something beyond the average Police Force,” she said gently, then stood up, heading up to David’s room, Scott following behind her. 

He had a few posters in his room of bands, and a checker patterned bedsheet, but aside from that it was nearly completely bare. His desk was neat, his curtains were a plain beige, everything was tucked away in its place. Scott opened up some binders flipping through, then looked around his bookshelf. “Remind me never to go missing,” he chuckled to himself. “I wouldn’t want somebody going through my stuff.”

“Do you have something to hide?” Jean smirked, raising an eyebrow knowingly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small figure looking in on the room. Turning, she smiled softly towards the little boy. “Hello?” his eyes widened, and he darted out down the hall. “Wait!” Jean cried, running towards him and into Gabrielle. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she apologized. 

“It’s okay,” she replied, her voice soft.

“Who was that?” asked Jean. 

“His name is Ian,” Gabrielle looked down the hall to where the little boy had disappeared. “David found him living on the streets one day, and since then he’s lived with us. David had gone out looking for him when…” she paused, her eyes welling up with tears. 

“Does he know anything?” Jean asked gently.

“No,” Gabrielle shook her head, wiping the tears from her eyes. “He doesn’t talk. He’s mute.”

_ Liverpool, Scotland _

_ This Is The Life by Amy MacDonald blares from the speakers _

“Juju,” Rogue stared at Jubilee apprehensively. “I think that when the Professor said to ‘mingle and see if we can find any information’, this isn’t what he had in mind.”

“Relax, Roguie,” Jubilee smiled, twirling around in the streets with the rest of the town as music blared through the speakers. “I am mingling. Getting a sense of my surroundings.”

“The Mission is to find out if anyone has any intel on where David could be, or who could’ve taken him,” Bobby reminded her.

“We’re in Scotland, out of the country,” Kitty pointed out, dancing on the streets besides Jubilee. “How often do we get this chance? You two need to stop being such worrywarts.”

“Kitty’s right,” Kurt bamfed into view, holding onto some drinks. “You guys need to have some fun.”

“They have a point,” a smile appeared on Rogue’s face. “How often are we going to be in Scotland?”

A young man who was flirting with a ton of ladies caught Bobby’s eye as he winked at one of them, and telekinetically called a drink to his hand. “Look-” he pointed towards the young man with longish hair. “He’s telekinetic. Could be our man.”

“Should we follow him?” asked Regina. 

Jubilee countered. “It’s not like he’s going anywhere.”

“Maybe just go a bit closer? If he tries to do something, we can stop him,” Regina set her drink down on the half table next to them. 

“If you insist,” Jubilee shrugged, following the other girl. Rogue and Kitty glanced at each other before following, Piotr, Remy, and Bobby close behind. 

They stopped a little ways away from him, and Jubilee grabbed Kitty’s arm, pulling her into the street, dancing with her. “Care to dance?” Remy asked, touching Rogue’s hand. 

Rogue was hesitant at first, and Remy grinned as he pulled her in, grasping her hands and spinning her around. Chuckling to herself, she allowed him to spin her. He guided her feet, moving his own expertly. 

Similarly, Kitty turned to Piotr. “Do you want to dance?” 

Piotr blushed, but nodded shyly. “I-I am not that good-”

Kitty giggled towards him. “Being good doesn’t matter. Just have fun.”

Moving slowly at first, they speed up, Kitty leading him as Remy did Rogue. The pair danced together happily, besides Rogue and Remy, while Jubilee, Bobby, Regina, and Kurt danced besides each other solo. Suddenly Lucas stopped what he was doing, and turned, making eye contact with Bobby. “Uh,” Bobby gulped, looking at the other students as Lucas made his way towards them. “I think that we have a problem.”

**Commercial Break**

“So,” Lucas leaned in close to Jubilee, twirling a piece of her hair. “The...Professor sent you?” 

Jubilee yanked away from him. “Who’s asking?”

“Call me Lucas,” he snickered. 

“What do ya’ want, Lucas?” Rogue demanded. “Are you telepathic as well as telekinetic?”

Lucas scoffed at her. “Don’t order me around. You all may have trained with Charles, but that doesn’t make you as strong as me.”

They glanced at each other before Kitty spoke up. “So you are the one who took David,” she guessed. 

“Aw,” Lucas raised his hands sarcastically, tilting his head and looking up at them. “You caught me.” 

“Why’d you take the kid?” asked Remy, flipping cards. 

“That’s none of your business,” replied Lucas, plucking a card out of his hand. “All you need to do is stay out of this.”

“That ain’t likely,” Rogue snorted. 

Gambit launched a card at him suddenly, but Lucas, telekinetically diverted it into the air, where it exploded above them. The crowds hurriedly left the square, screaming. Jubilee blasted plasma at him, but it had no effect. A twitch of his fingers threw her against a wall, and he turned to face Remy. “Did you have fun with that?”

“You a tricky one,” Gambit grinned, whipping out his bo staff and twisting it around. “But you seem all bark and no bite.” 

He threw Gambit back, and turned as Rogue lifted him up and tossed him through the air like a rag doll. “Don’t you have any manners?” she chastised him, flying over to where he was slowly standing up. He didn’t even make a move to block her as she wrapped her ungloved hand around his wrist. 

Her eyes widened slightly, and his form shimmered. “I’d say that’s quite a bite,” he cackled wickedly.

He easily pulled away from her, and she clutched the side of her head, screaming out and flying ten feet in the air, twisting. “What did you do?” exclaimed Remy, pulling out more cards while moving towards Rogue’s withering form. 

“My mind is rather interesting, I don’t think that the little girl can quite handle it,” Lucas looked at the students, exasperated. He waved his hand, and Rogue, along with everyone else, collapsed to the ground. 

_ Gabrielle Haller’s House _

_ Glasgow, Scotland _

“Have you had any success in locating him?” asked Gabrielle. 

“Yes, but it is a bit vague. Perhaps you could assist me with it?” the Professor asked, and Gabrielle nodded.

“Of course. What could you find?” she asked.

“I keep seeing ruins of a castle,” described the Professor. “And hearing rock music. It’s on the edge of a cliff, above the sea.”

“Ah,” Gabrielle nodded. “That’s the McFadden castle. Teenagers have been using those ruins for parties.”

“I will have to continue to look, but I suggest that’s where start,” shrugging, the Professor closed his eyes, focusing once more.

_ The Woods Outside the Haller House _

“Ian?” Jean called, looking around. If she could just find him and look into his mind, she was sure that he knew something. The woods around her seemed unfamiliar and unforgiving, the tall trees towering overtop her, leaves drifting down on her occasionally. She reached out with her mind, and she thought that she could sense him. Turning to the left, she marched forwards, only to stop as leaves and twigs snapped ahead of her. “Ian, dear, is that you?” 

“I’m afraid not,” Lucas stepped out from behind a tree, his head tilted. “Jean. I saw you. You came here with the Professor?” he confirmed. 

Feeling him prodding at her mind, Jean reinforced her blocks. “Who are you? How do you know the Professor?”

“Funny you ask,” he grinned, and fire flared up around her in a circle, encasing her. Jean tried to attack his mind, but it was turned around, attacking her own mind. She screamed out in pain, collapsing to the ground in unconsciousness.

_ In Gabrielle Haller’s House _

The Professor gasped out in pain, his eyes flying open. “What is it, Professor?” Storm asked, bending down next to him. 

“I am afraid that whoever has taken David is more than just your average kidnapper,” the Professor rubbed his temples. “He was taken by a mutant-an incredibly powerful one. And that’s not all,” the Professor looked towards Scott mournfully. “He has now taken Jean, too.”

“No!” he shouted.

_ Liverpool, Scotland _

Gambit sat up, his head pounding. The world spun around him, and it took him a few moments to gather his surroundings. He made finally made out the other students, slowly pushing themselves up. The person closest to him was ironically Rogue, who was still unconscious with a large gash on her head. “Rogue?” he gently touched her arm. “ _ Chère _ ?” Rogue moaned, turning slightly before sitting up.

“Remy, ah-” suddenly her eyes flew open. “Lucas! He-”

“He knocked out everyone,” supplied Remy. 

“No, that’s not it,” she pulled herself to her feet, wincing. “Ah need to talk to the Professor. It’s important. Ah saw something in his mind. He needs to know-”

“Know what?” Kitty asked. “That he kicked our asses?”

“No-” Rogue shook her head. “It’s important. And complicated. Ah-ah hardly even know how to explain it. We have to go back.”

“I don’t think we need to,” Jubilee pointed to where Gabrielle’s car was pulling up to them. “They’re here.”

“What happened here?” asked Ororo as she exited the car, rushing over to them. “Are you okay?”

“We were attacked by this guy named Lucas,” explained Bobby. “He was telepathic and telekinetic.”

“He must be the one who took Jean,” pondered Ororo.

“Jean’s kidnapped?” Regina asked, her eyebrows creased. 

“Yes, we believe by the same person who took David. We figured out where they went, and we’re going to stop him and get David and Jean back,” Ororo elucidated. 

“Ah need to talk to the Professor,” said Rogue urgently. “It’s about David and Lucas.”

“What is it?” Ororo asked, confused. 

“It’s not Lucas and David,” Rogue explicated slowly. “Lucas  _ is  _ David.”

**Commercial Break**

_ McFadden Castle, Scotland _

“What do you want?” Jean spat, glaring at Lucas, then tossed him against the wall. She started to leave, but was suddenly yanked back and thrown down the stairs. “Agh!” she exclaimed. Pressing her fingers to her temple, she once again tried to get into his mind, with no prevail. 

“Oh, missy,” he smiled wickedly. “You might be more powerful than most mutants, but you aren’t powerful enough to defeat me.”

Shutting the stone door, Jean was left in darkness.

“So he got you, too?” asked a male voice from the corner.

“Yeah,” Jean walked towards the voice. “Are you David?”

“Yes…” he spoke cautiously. “Who are you?”

“My name is Jean Grey,” she said encouragingly. “Your father sent me.”

David scoffed. “My father? He doesn’t care about me enough to ever contact me, I’m not surprised that he couldn’t even come and help me himself.”

“David, he is coming. But he never knew that you existed. Your mother never told him about you,” explained Jean gently. 

“Lucas says that he’s the greatest telepath in the world,” David argued, bitter. “How could he not know?”

_ North Highway, on the way to McFadden Castles _

“Wait-” Scott shook his head, looking out the window as the trees flew by them. “How can he be both? And why would he kidnap himself?”

“Ah don’t know,” Rogue admitted. “It’s all pretty confusing. But what ah saw, ah know that he ain’t a normal kid.”

“I always knew that there was a good chance that he would be a-a mutant,” Gabrielle admitted. “Given his parentage. But he never showed any signs, and he certainly never said anything.”

“Rogue,” the Professor asked. “Would you mind if I had a look in your mind? Perhaps I could make sense of what you discovered.” 

“Go ahead,” Rogue shrugged. “Ah don’ know how much sense it’ll make to you-especially if you’re viewing it through mah head.”

The Professor reached in, focusing and shifting through. After a few moments, he opened his eyes, worried. “It seems that he has...multiple personalities. When his powers developed, he developed another, separate personality, quite different from his own. Lucas is a manifestation of the darkest parts of him.”

“So he...kidnapped...himself?” Kitty summed up. 

“Something like that,” the Professor nodded. 

They pulled up outside of the Castle, and were instantly greeted by blaring rock music and chatter. 

_ Tonight We are Victorious by Panic! at the Disco plays through the speakers _

“We should spread out,” Scott suggested, quickly stepping out of the car and heading in. 

“Be careful,” warned the Professor. “We do not need to lose anyone else.”

The students spread out in pairs, Kitty and Piotr, Rogue and Gambit, Jubilee and Regina, Bobby and Kurt, with Daniel tagging along. The Professor slowly rolled around, looking at each person individually. 

Scott, on the other hand, was not being slow at all. Pushing through the crowd, looking around for Jean. Several redheads caused him to turn, thinking he saw her. “Jean?” he called out. “Jean?”

The Professor stopped searching as his eyes landed on a single person. “Ian?” asked Gabrielle, bending down to his level. “What are you doing here?” Ian’s eyes narrowed, and fire spread from his feet, wrapping around them. “Ian, what are you doing?”

“I am afraid that Ian knows more than he is letting on,” the Professor answered. “And his loyalties are not with us-but with Lucas.”

_ Below the McFadden Castles _

“Do you hear that?” Jean raised her head to a crack in the wall.

“Hear what?” asked David. 

A faint call of “Jean?” rang through the walls again. 

“That!” she exclaimed. “It’s Scott. If they’re here, then we can get out.”

“How do you plan on doing that?” David scoffed. 

“By focusing,” replied Jean, raising her hands. It took a few moments, and she grunted and groaned as the rock slowly slid out of its place and onto the ground.

“Wow,” David seemed impressed. “Now, can you get these things off of me?” he raised his shackled hands.

“Of course,” Jean nodded, mentally undoing the chains. Dashing up the stairs, she slowed down at the corner once they reached the top. Just a little bit aways was Scott, searching through the crowd for her. “Scott!” she called out, leaving the corner with David slowly following behind. 

“Jean!” he exclaimed, swooping her up in his arms and hugging her tightly. 

“We have to get out of here,” Jean said, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the exit, where the Professor was. David followed grudgingly behind at a safe distance, then he noticed the ring of fire surrounding his mother and the Professor. 

“Mum!” he exclaimed running over to her. 

“David!” she cried out, a smile crossing her face. “You’re alright!”

“Now that we’re all here together,” Lucas smiled, strutting over to them. “We can get started.”

**Commercial Break**

“David-” the Professor acknowledged. “Lucas and Ian, they’re a part of you! You can control them!”

Suddenly David cried out in pain, grasping his head and falling to his knees. “No! I-I can’t!” 

“Yes, you can!” the Professor promised. “Let me help you.”

Entering David’s mind, the Professor could see Lucas and Ian, who were also there, quite clearly. “David, trust me. Push them away. Don’t let them take over!”

A large gap appeared within his mind, pulling in Ian, until he disappeared. “Glad you got rid of him. Now it’s just us,” Lucas smiled wickedly. 

“David, believe in yourself. Lucas is just a part of you, you can control him,” urged the Professor.

“I can’t!” David screamed out again, and the gap reappeared, pulling in Lucas, who cackled, but then dragged back David, too. “Father!” he cried. “Father, help me!”

“David!” the Professor grasped his hand, attempting to pull him away. “No!” he shouted, his eyes flying open. The boy was lying face down on the ground, and his form shimmered as he stood up, switching around blurrily until it focused in.

It was Lucas.

“No!” Gabrielle sobbed. “No, no,  _ no _ !”

“So glad that we got to have this little chat, father,” he smiled cruelly. “That’s all I wanted-just me, myself, and I, all alone. No David or Ian. Just me,” he laughed, the fire dissipating. “Goodbye,  _ father _ .”

And in a shimmer of light, he was gone.

Slowly and mournfully, the X-Men rounded themselves up and sat down in Gabrielle’s car. Last were Ororo and Charles, who stood outside the car for a brief moment. “Don’t worry, Charles,” Ororo said soothingly. “I’m sure that he’ll turn up again, and when he does, you’ll be ready to help him.”

Charles Xavier sighed, looking out into the distance. “Do you know what the worst part of this is?” he spoke softly to himself. “I lost him before I even found him.”

With that, he silently rolled into the car, leaving Ororo outside alone in the chilly wind, staring at the spot where the young boy had vanished from.

**End Credits**

Promo for Next Episode: X-Men of S.H.I.E.L.D., Part One:

A plot to destroy the X-Men and all other powered humans brings them together with the unlikeliest of allies-the Avengers and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 


	15. X-Men of S.H.I.E.L.D. Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Promo for this episode:  
> A plot to destroy the X-Men and all powered humans brings them together with the most unlikely of allies-the Avengers and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The studio apologizes for their unexpected week break, but we needed time to organize and film, due to scheduling conflicts with the guest stars.  
> As usual, the format for this story was inspired by the amazing 'ARogueGambit7's Mutant High: Revolutionary. Enjoy!

**Season One, Episode Fifteen**

**X-Men of S.H.I.E.L.D. Part One**

_ S.H.I.E.L.D. Globemaster _

“You’re kidding!” Jemma exclaimed, laughing. “No way.”

“I don’t see how it’s much of a surprise,” shrugged Fitz. “I mean, seriously, she hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D., how is the Pentagon any different?”

“Less posche defenses,” shrugged Skye. “You S.H.I.E.L.D. people sure do love your advanced looking security.” 

“Advanced looking?” Fitz stammered out. “I spent ages on that system!”

“Well, it was pretty easy. I will admit, making it look scary would make most people stop, but once you override the passcode system-” Skye started to explain, but Fitz raised his hand.

“I don’t want to hear your insults. I don’t think that anyone else could hack into it,” he turned his head away. 

“Funny you say that,” Skye looked down at her beeping iPad. “I’m getting an alert.”

“Mission?” asked Jemma. 

“No,” Skye shook her head. “I have it set up to let me know of any changes into the security system, or anyone entering it or leaving it,” she looked up to see Fitz-Simmons giving her weird looks. “What? I need to keep up with the changes. Anyway, someone is currently making changes in the security system.”

“So?” Fitz leaned back on his chair. “It’s probably just Fury or Coulson.” 

“Well, if it was, then they would use their own personal codes. But this person is using the mimic code <278-/9^6 that appears as Coulson’s,” Skye explained, but they just continued to stare at her. “The computer translates each of their passwords to their own code. Usually really long. But there are ways to trick the computer, certain codes that when typed in will come across and translate to the same code. Mimic codes,” she said this as if it were simple.

“So…” Fitz swallowed. “Someone is pretending to be Coulson while making changes in the security system?”

Skye sighed. “Yes. Someone is pretending to be Coulson while making changes in the security system. From the looks of it, once the changes are made, it takes down our defense and insert a virus. They’re almost done, so we should land back in New York while we can.”

“You going to explain all of this to Coulson?” asked Jemma.

“Of course,” Skye leaned forward, sighing. “But I doubt that he’ll understand it any better than you will.”

_ The Mansion, Upper Level _

“Director Fury said what?” Jean furrowed her eyebrows. 

“He’s asked for our help,” the Professor repeated. “Which is not something he does often. But the information that he’s given me-it is clear that this is something that we need to look into.”

“How many details does he have on this plot?” Scott asked. “This is pretty big.”

“Well, we aren’t exactly best buddies with the rest of the world, and it’s not like they haven’t tried to take us out before. Is it really a surprise that they’re trying it again?” Logan pointed out. 

“But this-this is bigger than we’ve ever had to deal with before. If what he’s discovered is true, which it probably is, then it’s not just going to kill mutants, but all superheroes,” the Professor explained.

“So what does he want us to do about it?” Logan extended and retracted his claws. “Hasn’t he got all of S.H.I.E.L.D. to help?”

“He requires my aid in locating the source of the plot, and he thinks that we will be an assistance in defeating it,” Charles acknowledged. “And there’s more.”

“Oh yeah?” Logan pushed away from the wall. “What else?”

_ Library, Lower Level of the Mansion _

“What are you smiling about so much?” asked Rogue as Kitty walked slowly into the room, grinning from ear to ear.

“I was eavesdropping on the Professor,” she started.

“Oh, so if this makes you happy, that means nobody’s trying to kill us,  _ oui _ ?” Remy asked, and Kitty winced.

“Okay. That is a bad part. There’s this super huge murder plot going on to kill all superheroes or powered people. And it’s really, really bad,” she confessed.

“And this made you smile?” Bobby scoffed.

“No. That is bad. Very, very bad. But there is something very, very, good that comes along with this. Something that makes Kitty very, very happy,” she paused for dramatic effect, before a huge smile crossed her face. “We’re going to work with the Avengers!”

_ Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons _

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young) 

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

Chris Evans  _ as  _ Captain America

Robert Downey Jr  _ as  _ Iron Man

Jeremy Renner  _ as  _ Hawkeye

Scarlett Johansson  _ as  _ Black Widow

Mark Ruffalo  _ as  _ Hulk

Samuel L. Jackson  _ as  _ Nick Fury

Clark Gregg  _ as  _ Phil Coulson

Chloe Bennet  _ as  _ Skye

Elizabeth Henstridge  _ as  _ Jemma Simmons

Ian De Caestecker  _ as  _ Leo Fitz

Brett Dalton  _ as  _ Grant Ward

Ming-Na Wen  _ as  _ Melinda May

_ S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters _

“Behave,” ordered Scott, looking the students in the eye. “This is a real mission, and I know that some of you are excited, but we have to get things done. If you can’t behave now, then we won’t take you on missions anymore.”

“We know!” Kitty assured him. “Trust me, we know. We are all prepared for this.”

“Well, forgive me if I’m a little hesitant on believing that,” Scott replied snarkily. Nick Fury approached them, running his eyes over the broad of mutants. “Mr. Fury,” Scott nodded respectively. 

“Summers,” Fury acknowledged, then turned to the Professor. “Charles, glad to see that you made it. We have a lot to discuss.”

“Of course,” he nodded. “Have you received more information?”

“No. I have interviewed the Agent who discovered the hacking myself, and she hasn’t found anything else. Whoever’s doing this knows that they’re being watched, and they’re probably stay under the radar for the time being,” Fury explained. 

“That would make the most sense,” Charles nodded.

“Your students can take care of themselves, I can presume?” Fury looked over towards the students again. 

“Of course,” Scott assured. 

“They don’t want to spend the rest of their lives in the Danger Room,” Logan narrowed his eyes, causing Daniel to gulp.

“No we do not,” he agreed. 

“Good. Now that that’s settled, let’s get started,” Fury turned, saying, “Agent Coulson will be with you shortly to explain what you can do to help.”

“I’m sorry for my bluntness,” Scott apologized to Fury. “But isn’t Agent Coulson dead?”

“That’s classified. Normally you have to have level seven clearence, but this is desperate times, and with Charles’s ability, it seemed likely that he already knew,” Fury looked to the Professor, who confirmed this.

“I could sense him once I arrived, I just figured it would be rude to ask,” admitted Charles. 

“You guys just wait here for Mr. Coulson,” Scott instructed. “Don’t touch anything.”

“Aw,” Remy pouted. “You’re no fun.”

“I mean it!” Scott warned, walking off with the Professor, Logan, and Fury. 

As soon as they were out of earshot, Jubilee turned to Kitty. “Do you think that they’re here? In the building right now?”

Kitty looked around. “I don’t see them, but they might be. If they arrive while we’re here, we’ll certainly know. Mr. Stark likes to make an entrance.”

“Jubilee,” Rogue looked at was was in the spunky mutants hand. “Did you bring...trading cards?”

Jubilee bit her lip, nodding. “Yes. I couldn’t help it. Imagine if I got them to sign them! It would be awesome.”

“I have to agree with you on that one,” Coulson walked over to them, smiling brightly. “I wanted to have them sign mine, too. Vintage set. But Fury got them damaged, and as of the moment they don’t know that I’m alive.”

“So we know something that the Avengers don’t?” Bobby confirmed. 

“Yes. I’d prefer if I was the one to tell them, so would you mind not mentioning it to them?” Coulson requested.

“Of course, sir,” Bobby quickly nodded.

“Great. You guys know that I’m Agent Coulson, and Charles sent ahead files on you guys, so I know you, too,” he smiled again, looking at the students. “Follow me, I would like you to meet the rest of my team, so we all know who we’re going to be working with on our next mission.”

He led the way, the students, rather awkwardly, followed behind him, looking amongst themselves. “So we just...follow him?” Regina whispered to Matt.

“Yeah. I think that part was pretty clear,” he grumbled. 

“Fun,” Regina sighed, looking around at all of the tech. “Let’s see who is going to talk down on us this time.”

**Commercial Break**

_ S.H.I.E.L.D. Globemaster _

_ Immortals by Fall Out Boy plays over next few scenes _

“This is Skye,” Coulson gestured to Skye, who waved slightly. “Fitz-Simmons,” Simmons smiled warmly, while Fitz awkwardly nodding. “Agent Ward,” Grant Ward just nodded his head curtly, his eyes flashing towards Coulson. “And Agent May,” her face showed even less signs of emotion.

“Hello,” Regina waved in response. 

“And this is Regina, Bobby, Matt, Rogue, Remy, Jubilee, Kitty, Daniel, and Piotr,” Coulson pointed them out each in turn. 

“Wow,” Skye chuckled to herself. “We should all of you guys name tags.” 

“Skye here was the one who discovered the intruder and the plan,” explained Coulson.

“About that,” Bobby stepped forward. “The Professor was a little vague on those details. What is their plan? Aside from taking out super powered individuals?” 

“You don’t even know their plan?” Ward raised an eyebrow at him.

“Why don’t you brief them on that?” Coulson suggested. 

They exchanged looks for a few moments before Ward said tightly, “Of course, sir. If you’ll follow me.”

“Actually,” Kitty turned to Skye. “I’m pretty good at...finding stuff on computers myself. Could you possibly show me what you found? Maybe I could help.”

“I don’t know if you could, Skye’s the best-” Ward started, only to be interrupted by Skye herself. 

“Sure!” she smiled at Kitty. “I found it on my iPad, but if you come over here to the computer, I can show you in more detail.”

“All right then,” Ward grunted. “The rest of you, come over here, and I’ll show you what their plan is, and how we’re going to stop it.”

“Is this what you do everyday?” Jubilee asked, excitement clear in her voice. 

“Yes,” Ward nodded. “Isn’t this what you X-Men do everyday?”

“Yes, we stop bad guys like this all the time, but we don’t get to use as much tech in finding them, solve the mystery like this. The Professor is a telepath, so we don’t really have too much of a use for looking this way,” explained Jubilee.

“Aha,” Ward pulled up a diagram on the hologram. “Skye was able to trace back the codes enough to find this part of the plan. She has her program set up so it’s always digging and decoding to find the rest of it, but for now we have to work on solving what he have,” he pointed to several green dots on the diagram. “See these? They’re computer viruses that were implanted to take down security systems. All through New York, including one on our Helicarrier. From what we’ve managed to decode, they’ll all finish their job at the same moment, and then send out a signal to whoever put them there. That signal will verify that the security systems are weak enough to begin the attack.”

“So we have to find out who placed the virus before they finish,” Regina reasoned. “Why don’t you take down the viruses in the meantime? Didn’t you take down the one on the Helicarrier?”

“We only barely managed to stop it from being implanted,” Ward answered gruffly. “Once it’s implanted, only the person who put them up can take them down.”

“I see,” Regina furrowed her eyebrows, counting on her fingers. “That’s quite the collateral damage. If they succeed, more than just super powered people will die. How is there any reason to this?”

“We don’t know yet. We haven’t found a pattern, but for now that’s just giving us more reason to act quickly,” Ward seemed to be getting a bit exasperated with them, gripping the table tightly.

“How long do we have ’fore everyone dies and it’s all our fault?” asked Remy, only to receive an extremely angry glare from Ward.

“Does this seem like a joke to you?” he let go of the table, leaning towards him. “People are going to die, their lives will be over, and yes, it will be our fault. So maybe don’t be so sarcastic about it.”

“Calm down,  _ mon ami,  _ just tryin’ to lighten the mood and ask a question,” Remy raised his hands. 

Ward let out a long breath before answering. “Around sixteen hours. We think. We’re still running double checks on it, because we can’t afford to be wrong.”

“We can do it,” Jubilee smiled cheerfully. “Can we look around? Maybe we can figure something out. At least until Coulson returns.”

“I suppose that I can’t stop you now,” Ward gestured outwards to the room. “As soon as Coulson returns, we’re going to get the official brief on our mission and we can go.”

Piotr wandered over to where Kitty was with Skye, looking over the database system on her computer. “This is really impressive,” Kitty looked around the screen. “May I?” she asked, putting her hand on the mouse.

“Go ahead. Just be careful,” Skye nodded.

Kitty clicked around a little bit, opening a backdoor of sorts. “This would be where the installer’s location…” a firewall popped up.

“I reached this point, too,” Skye bit her lip. “I’ve tried so many access and mimic codes, but none of them seem to be adding up. They could’ve connected it to a GPS, but without knowing where it was installed, there’s a billion different possible locations.” 

“Have you tried tracing back the design of the firewall?” Kitty asked.

“The design of the firewall?” Skye repeated, confused.

“Yeah. The firewall that popped up here has probably been used before. If we can trace it back to a specific website or location, we could use it to figure out who was the person who enacted it was,” described Kitty.

“That...actually makes a lot of sense,” Skye began typing quickly, clicking and double clicking.

“I will never understand computers,” announced Piotr, who had been hopelessly trying to follow their conversation. 

“So,” Jemma looked towards Remy awkwardly. “What’s your power?”

Kitty shouted, “Cheesey pickup lines!” at the same moment Jubilee cried out, “Being full of himself!” 

“Don’ listen to them,” Remy shook his head, chuckling to himself. “You two wound dis one.”

“He can turn charge the potential energy in things to make them explode,” Rogue explained. “But Jubes and Kitty ain’t wrong, either.”

“That is fascinating!” a light lit up her facial expressions. “Are you able to control the intensity of the charge?”

“Yeah,” he pulled out a pack of cards. “Tho’ bigger things usually have a bigger explosion.”

“And you maintain control over it?” Jemma was amazed, pulling out a notebook and taking notes while talking. “This is all evolution, I can only imagine...it’s almost certainly something in your brain. Can you describe the sensation when you use your power?”

Remy glanced at Rogue for a moment. “ _ Non _ , not really.”

“This is fantastic! I’ve always wanted to study mutants, but never gotten a chance to. If I had some scans of your brain-” Remy’s expression darkened, and perhaps she saw it, because she bit her lip before turning to Rogue. “What about you? What’s your power?”

Rogue flushed red, tugging absently at her glove before answering. “Ah can-when ah touch people, ah sort of absorb them. Their life force, memories, powers if they’re a mutant,” she explained sheepishly. 

“Oh, I’m sorry. That sounds horrible,” she looked at Rogue’s gloves. “Do you have no control over it?”

Rogue shook her head. “No.”

“Do you mind-” Jemma hesitated, unsure if she should continue. “Could I get maybe a skin sample? And perhaps a blood sample? Not much-but if it travels through skin to skin contact, it would be amazing if I could just run some tests.”

“Go ahead,” Rogue nodded. “Ah doubt you’ll be able to find any methods for control though, ah’ve been trying for who knows how long, and ah ain’t had any success.” 

“Come over here,” Jemma put on a pair of gloves, and pulled out a tweezer. “Take off your gloves. It’s okay, my hands are covered.”

Rogue obeyed, tucking one of her gloves in her pocket. Jemma used the tweezers to pull off a small section of skin around Rogue’s fingernail, placing it in a small glass container. “Didja say that you wanted a blood sample?”

“Oh,” Jemma waved her hand. “You don’t need to, I could do just fine with this.”

“Naw, it’s alright,” Rogue extended her arm. “Take it. It ain’t often that people are actually interested in the scientific side of mutant abilities.” 

Jemma carefully wiped a small space on the inner of Rogue’s elbow, the slowly slid a needle in. Rogue winced, but didn’t say anything. Once the small vial was filled with blood, Jemma slowly pulled it out and capped it. “Here you go,” she carefully taped the band aid onto her arm. “Thank you so much! I can’t wait to study how the cells react to contact and of course, all of the different fluxuations-” she looked up to the confused Remy and Rogue. “Nevermind. I forget that not everyone understands the fascination of cellular mutations.”

“Don’t mind her,” Fitz walked over waving his hand. “She gets a bit carried away.”

“Do I need to remind you how you didn’t leave your room for two weeks when you finally made a breakthrough on the compaction of the Night-Night gun?” she pointed out. 

“Night-Night gun?” Remy repeated, but it seemed that neither Fitz nor Simmons heard him.

“You literally just took blood and skin samples from a girl you just met because you wanted to study it!” Fitz retorted.

“Ah don’t mind-” Rogue started, only to be talked over by Simmons.

“I was genuinely curious! These are new scientific breakthroughs and if we study them, we can-”

“Fitz-Simmons!” Ward walked over to them. “May wants to talk to you and Skye about the technology that could’ve been used to implant the viruses.”

“Of course,” Jemma nodded. “Thank you so much for the sample,” she said to Rogue. 

“No problem,” she replied. 

As they walked away, Remy looked from Fitz-Simmons, who were bickering quietly, to Rogue. “And I thought that we had sexual tension,” he wiggled his eyebrows, causing Rogue smacked his arm, then walked away towards the others.

_ S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, Upper Level _

“You can see why this would be a problem,” Fury was saying to Charles, and Logan was chuckling behind them.

“I’m sure that while they’ll be excited about working with them, I can assure you that they are fully aware of the danger in the situation,” Charles promised. 

“You sure about that, Chuck? Jubilee even brought her memorabilia for them to sign,” Logan pointed out. 

“They know the seriousness. I trust them,” Charles assured both Logan and Fury.

“If you say so, I just think-” suddenly Logan froze, looking around. “Something ain’t right. I smell-” abruptly, the windows exploded, glass and metal showering them in a downpour of destruction. 

**Commercial Break**

“What the Hell?” exclaimed Logan, leaping outwards to where dozens and dozens of figures in armed suits where open firing at the entirety of S.H.I.E.L.D. “Fury, are these some of your goons?”

“No!” Fury pulled out his own gun, shooting at the men, then shouting into his intercom. “Agent Hill, we are under attack! Get all of our field trained soldiers out here immediately!”

More Agents burst out into the room, shooting at the attackers, who kept coming down in waves. The rest of the X-Men burst out in, ready to fight. “Phantom, distract as many as you can while Colossus takes them out!” Bobby ordered. “Bolt-anything you can drain anything to take out rest?” Daniel focused, draining from the already flickering lights. “Rogue, Gambit, guard each other and take out the new ones coming!” he blasted ice at some of the other incoming guards. “Shadowcat, Jubilee, try to take out the main helicopter!” 

Bobby continuously shot ice beams, taking out as may as he could. Matt stood his ground, focusing on desensing any of the soldiers who dared come in a fifty foot radius while Piotr knocked them unconscious via fist to face. Regina fought hand to hand combat, and a few times managed to send out strange vibrations and high pitched noises, causing the attackers to clutch their ears. Rogue tore through the soldiers like they were made of butter, throwing them across the room, and soaring above to avoid the shower of bullets. Remy tossed card after card, blowing up assailants one after another. His eyes glowed a brighter red as he increased the charges.

Kitty grasped Jubilee’s hand, phasing them through all of the attackers. A helicopter that was sending in more and more attackers. It was a little ways away, however, too far for them to jump. “Rogue?” shouted Kitty. “A little assistance?”

Rogue quickly flew over to her friends, “Hold on tight,” she warned, lifting them both up like they weighed nothing. “Phase us, Kitty!” Rogue ordered as more bullets shot at them, Kitty phased them just in the knick of time, and the bullets sailed harmlessly through them. Landing inside, Rogue started kicking and punching the men inside. “Shut it down! Turn off the computers!” kicking another out the door, Rogue whipped around, flipping another over her shoulder. “Hurry!”

Kitty quickly began typing into the keypad. “It needs a passcode!” she exclaimed, worried. 

Rogue lifted up a soldier, dangling him over the fifty foot drop. “You heard her. You want to live?”

“26871!” he twisted beneath her iron grip. 

“You hear that?” Rogue called to Kitty, who nodded, typing in the code.

“Got it!” she replied. Rogue tossed the attacker back in the helicopter, knocking him out cold. 

“Have you cancelled any backup calls?” asked Jubilee, fighting another man on the helicopter. 

“Just did,” Kitty assured her. 

“Rogue, the pilot!” Jubilee shouted as he dove off the helicopter with a parachute on. Just then, the helicopter lurched forward, diving to the ground. Rogue flew towards Kitty, catching her, and hurriedly rushed to Jubilee, who was rapidly approaching the ground. Before Rogue could get to her, however, another flying man caught her.

“I got the short kid,” the man in the red and gold suit proclaimed.

Jubilee looked up at him, a grin spreading across her face. “No way. No freaking way.”

“Iron Man!” Kitty said gleefully. 

“Can y’all calm down until later?” requested Rogue. “Don’ forget that we still have all of them down there to fight.” 

“Oh yeah,” Jubilee nodded, her voice small. “Definitely.”

Stark wasn’t alone, more of the Avengers had joined them downstairs. Red hair whipped through the room almost faster than Rogue thought possible. A red, white, and blue shield flew around the room like a frisbee and back again to its blond counterpart. Arrows flew through the air, taking out multiple attackers with their explosions. The second Rogue landed, she set Kitty down, then continued to rip through the soldiers, fighting like they were nothing. 

“See we got some help,” she noted to Remy, who had pulled out his bo staff and was using it to knock out assailants. 

“ _ Oui.  _ Glad for the assistance, though Kitty and Jubilee might both explode,” he glanced over to where Jubilee was fighting, but was obviously distracted by their famous additions. 

“True,” out of the corner of her eye she saw an attacker coming towards Remy, and with quick reflexes from what was most likely Carol’s training, she backflipped around, enhanced by flight, taking him out in a matter of seconds. “Pay attention, cajun, before you get yourself killed.”

“Dis one’s always payin’ attention,” his eyes ran over her. “Just not to the attackers.”

“Shut up, swamp rat,” scolded Rogue.

“Make me, river rat,” he replied playfully. Rogue smirked to herself, kicking down a few more attackers. 

Regina swung at one of the attackers, aiming a roundhouse kick square towards his jaw. While he was fazed, she forced him down with the palm of her hand, sweeping his feet underneath him. He grabbed a clump of her hair, yanking her down with him and throwing her against the floor. The second that she hit the floor, a high frequency screech filled the room, shattering the windows and causing them to continuously break down more and more. Cracks spread across the tables, and everyone in the room stopped what they were doing, clutching their ears. Matt, who had been the closest to her, fell to his knees, his nose bleeding. Regina gulped in a deep breath of air, and it stopped, leaving a slight ringing sensation in everyone’s ears. 

Kitty and Piotr helped each other to their feet, while Remy and Rogue did the same. Bobby offered Dan a hand, pulling him up. Matt stood up, wiping the blood away and storming over to Regina. He was stopped by none other than Steve Rogers himself. “Listen, kid, I don’t think-”

“Stay out of my way,” Matt half-growled to the star spangled man, pushing past him and gripping Regina at the shoulders. “What the Hell was that?” she just glared at him, and he shook her. “What the Hell was that? You could’ve killed everyone!”

Instead of cowering under his murderous glare. “Sorry that you got a little blood on your leather jacket,” she spat out. “Like you’re so perfect? You can’t even separate one sense from another, _ por el amor de Dios.” _

“You’re not even trying! You don’t care if people die because of your reckless behavior,” he leaned in, and she stared back, equally intense and twice as angry. “If people get hurt.”

“You have no idea what control is like,” she lowered her voice, speaking rapidly and angrily. “What I’ve had to go through-”

“Yeah. Rin. That sucked, but it didn’t just impact you. It hit everyone hard. Stop using her as your defense, when if it weren’t for you she’d still be here,” a resounding smack echoed through the room. She looked like she was going to hit him again, but Piotr stepped between them, placing a covered in steel hand in front of both of them.

“My friends, we do not want to do this. We have more pressing matters at hand,” he soothed, looking from Matt to Regina, who had anger and hatred written all over her. Matt glared for a moment later, before turning and stepping away, Regina’s hand print still prominent on his face. 

“That was fun!” Tony clapped his hands together, looking at each of the X-Men. “You gotta love teenage hormones.”

“Captain America,” Logan nodded towards him. “Long time, no see.”

“Same for you, Logan. How long has it been?” Steve smiled at Logan, walking towards him.

“What was it, the forties?” Logan shrugged, and Steve extended his hand, which Logan shook without hesitation.

“You two know each other?” Kitty asked with disbelief. “And you didn’t tell us?”

“We fought alongside each other,” explained Steve. “Back in World War II. You’re lucky to have him as a teacher. He’s a good fighter and a good man.”

“Oh. My. God,” Jubilee shook her head, grinning to herself. “This is amazing.”

“Up until the end,” Logan glanced at a still angry Regina. “You kids did alright. Good planning. Next time take out the pilot before he turns off the helicopter?” he said pointedly to Jubilee and Kitty. 

“Yeah,” Jubilee blushed. “Probably a good idea.”

Charles wheeled his way through the wreckage towards them. “Mr. Stark,” he said politely. 

“Charles Xavier. Pleasure to meet you. I’ve read your work on the human mind, and I must say, it is fantastic,” Tony conversed.

Natasha spoke nearby in low tones to Fury. “The helicopter was almost completely destroyed from hitting the ground. I managed to recover some hard drives,” she handed him a memory card and flash drive. 

“I’ll have an agent decrypt it,” Fury said. 

“Perfect,” nodded Natasha, looking towards the X-Men. “And them?”

“I trust Charles’s decision,” Fury granted. 

“No more,” Clint announced, jumping down from his scouting. “They’ve all disappeared, or are dead, or unconscious.”

“Good,” Scott conceded.

“Not for them,” Clint snorted in reply. 

“Perhaps we should discuss our plan more in depth somewhere else?” Charles recommended to Tony, who nodded.

“How about my place?” he offered. “I would suggest your Mansion, but I don’t think that everyone could handle all the excitement.”

“And,” interjected Steve. “If this does come to another fight, I think it would be better if it was not around children.”

“I have to agree with him for once on that one,” Tony added, then shook his head. “It’s the end of the world.”

“You can stay there tonight, and we can discuss the plan more,” Steve expounded. 

“That will give enough time for S.H.I.E.L.D. to get into the files,” Natasha agreed, then looked at each of the X-Men. “If they’re coming with us, whoever attacked here is more than likely to strike there.”

“And I just got the floors redone,” Tony shrugged nonchalantly. “Well, what’s a man to do? My insurance covers it. Let’s get going, shall we?”

As they turned and exited the destroyed building, Jubilee turned to Kitty and excitedly mouthed, ‘We’re going to the Avengers Tower!’

**Commercial Break**

_ The Avengers Tower _

_ Hymn for the Weekend by Coldplay plays until End Credits _

“So let me get this straight,” Tony held a beer in one hand, looking at the students, who were lounged across the couches and chairs, sodas in their hands. Logan held a beer, too as did Scott, which caused a lot of giggling and nudging across the room. “You can walk through walls,” he pointed to Kitty. “You can make things explode. You can turn your skin into metal. You can take away people’s senses. You can break things. You can freeze things. You can shoot lighting. You create fireworks. You can...kill people?” Tony pointed towards Rogue who shook her head. “Explain that to me.”

“When ah touch people, ah...absorb them. Their memories, life force, and powers,” Rogue shrugged. “Ah always have to wear gloves and keep my skin covered.”

“That sucks. No touching at all?” Tony repeated.

“Not even a little bit,” Rogue looked down.

“God, if that was me, never being able to touch or-” Tony was interrupted by Steve, who seemed to notice Rogue’s uncomfortableness. 

“You guys were all born with these powers?” he confirmed. 

“Yes,” Scott nodded. “I would’ve thought that Charles had briefed you on all of this.”

“Of course he has. It is just all very strange, that people worked so hard to create me and my...abilities, when there are people out there who are born with this stuff,” he shrugged.

“It’s not like S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn’t tried to invest more in them, but they prefer to...keep to themselves,” Natasha sipped from her drink, glancing at Charles.

“In today’s day and age, can you really blame us?” reprimed Charles. “It does us benefit to keep to ourselves.”

“Aren’t there more of you?” Jubilee asked suddenly. “Not to be rude, I’m just...curious.”

“Thor is back in Asgard, doing who knows what,” explained Tony. “And Banner is back in the labs looking over something. He said that he would be joining us, he was  _ really  _ excited to study...sorry, meet you.”

“Speak of the devil,” Clint looked back to where a wiry looking man, presumably Dr. Banner, had walked in, donning a lab coat and looking excited. 

“Sorry, I’m late…” he said awkwardly, looking around. “Charles Xavier,” he extended a hand. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. All of your work on genetic mutations, it’s simply fascinating.”

“Okay, that’s enough Geek for me,” Clint stood up. 

“Why don’t you show them to their rooms?” Tony proposed. “Nat can take the girls, you can take the boys.”

“Sure thing,” Nat nodded, standing up too.

“Aw,  _ chère _ , we don’ get to share a room? And I had all these plans…” Remy winked at Rogue, who groaned. 

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you any manners?” she sassed, walking out with Nat. 

Natasha led them into a hallway, silent at first. “I must say, I was surprised at your fighting ability. The S.H.I.E.L.D. has you listed as an ally on the index, but when I saw your ages, I wasn’t expecting much.”

“Thanks,” Kitty smiled, practically glowing under the woman’s compliment.

“You guys all...live together? Stay together all the time?” asked Nat, glancing back towards the girls. 

“Yeah,” Jubilee shot a sideways look to Regina. “It gets a bit tense.”

“I can tell,” Nat peeked back to Regina, who exploded.

“Stop looking at me! Matt’s an ass, I didn’t do anything he didn’t deserve!” she clenched her fists, glaring at everyone else. 

Not wanting to start a fight-Nat wasn’t very good with kids-she changed the subject. “So, Rogue, how long have you and the Cajun been together?”

Jubilee and Kitty looked towards each other, then burst into laughter. Rogue burned bright red, looking down. “We aren’t together.”

“They just...pine for each other,” Jubilee explained. “Obsessively.”

“Jubes and I try to get them together, but between Rogue’s stubbornness and the frequent death attacks…” Kitty shrugged. “They haven’t gotten together.”

“Oh,” Nat said curtly, studying Rogue curiously. “I see.”

“Yeah…” Rogue blushed deeper. “It’s...complicated.”

Nat cleared her throat. Emotional situations were not her strong suit. “Here’s your rooms. There’s enough guest rooms where you guys can have two per room. Good night.”

“Good night,” Rogue muttered, disappearing into a room, and Kitty and Jubilee glanced to each other, having a silent conversation before Kitty followed Rogue into that room, leaving Jubilee and Regina to go in theirs.

_ The Lounge, Avengers Tower _

“They’re just kids,” Steve shook his head to himself, looking into his drink. “And they’re forced into this...world. It’s horrible.”

“For most of them, the second that they came into their powers, they were forced into this world. Everyone who isn’t like them...they cannot hope to understand it. The human race is extremely prejudiced,” Charles spoke sadly. 

“Whoever is doing these attacks, they want us dead,” Bruce spoke solemnly. “Anyone with any form of abilities. If we fail...it’s not just us who will suffer.”

“I know,” Logan said gruffly. “That’s why we can’t.”

_ Rogue’s Room _

Rogue rolled over to her side, adjusting herself. The ground besides her bed creaked, and she sat up quickly, seeing a familiar pair of red on black eyes staring at her. “Remy?” she spoke in a hushed whisper. “What are you doin’ in here?”

“Just wanted to see you,  _ chère _ ,” he leaned in close to her, his voice rich. Rogue automatically pulled her covers up closer, but Remy put a hand on hers, stopping her.

“Remy,” Rogue looked in astonishment at their bare skin touching. “How are you-”

He silenced her, pressing his mouth against hers roughly. For a brief moment she was shocked, but she quickly got over herself, kissing him deeply in response. Rogue pulled him in deeper, running her hands over the sides of his face, his arms, his back. The contact enthralled her, adrenaline rushing through her veins. “Rogue,” he moaned into her lips, drawing her closer.

“Remy,” she exhaled, seeing stars. “Oh,  _ God,  _ Remy.”

“Rogue,” he repeated, his voice changing, more alert. “Rogue!”

Rogue sat up with a gasp, looking towards Kitty. “Wha-what’s going on?”

Her face was shrouded in shadows, her voice attentive. “We have to get up. Skye decoded the firewall and traced it back. She’s been working at it all night, and she just discovered the plans-there’s a total of twenty-five bombs spread throughout New York, and they’re all going to go off in a matter of two hours.”

**End Credits**

Promo for Next Episode: X-Men of S.H.I.E.L.D., Part Two:

The X-Men and Avengers have two hours to find the bombs across the city, or New York will pay the price.


	16. X-Men of S.H.I.E.L.D. Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Promo for this Episode:  
> The X-Men and Avengers have two hours to find the bombs across the city, or New York will pay the price.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, the format for this story was inspired by the fantastic 'ARogueGambit7's Mutant High: Revolutionary. Go read it, if you haven't. It's amazing!  
> Enjoy!

**Season One, Episode Sixteen**

**X-Men of S.H.I.E.L.D. Part Two**

_ Main Lounge, Avengers Tower _

“They were able to trace the firewall back far enough to get to a single church website in New Orleans,” Nat pulled up an image of a beautiful church, light streaming in through the windows. “From there she entered a back door of sorts, which led her to this image,” a strange ‘A’ appeared on the screen, and Remy swore and looked down.

“Dat’s the Assassins Guild’s mark,” Rogue recalled, her voice picking up traces of the New Orleans accent. 

“We have a few files on them, but we can never gather enough on them,” Natasha picked up an iPad, flicking through it and reading something. 

“Got anything to add, Gumbo?” Logan raised an eyebrow, staring at Remy.

“ _ Non,  _ not really,” Remy shrugged. “Dis ain’ their normal gig. Dey don’ wanna take out powered people. If dey’re doing this, it ain’t because of what they want. Dey’re either gettin’ paid, or threatened. Or both.”

“So you know them?” Steve leaned forward on his seat. 

“ _ Oui,”  _ Remy nodded solemnly. “Back in New Orleans, dey were a rival Guild. We mostly kept to ourselves. Don’ like to interfere with each other.”

Rogue glanced at Remy under her bangs, but didn’t say anything. “Certainly could tell that you liked to stay to yourselves when that crazy ex-girlfriend of yours came and attacked the Mansion,” Matt snorted. 

“ _ Homme,  _ dat had nothin’ to do with the Guilds and you know it. Don’ go spreadin’ lies ’bout dis one,” Remy warned.

“Is this something that we should know?” asked Bruce, looking at the students. “If this is important information that you’re withholding-”

“No, it’s just an angry ex-girl lookin’ for some revenge in all the wrong places,” Remy assured him.

Steve looked to Logan for confirmation, who nodded. “The Professor took care of it.”

“We need to split into teams to find the bombs and try to diffuse them, and to track down whoever set them up,” Scott instructed. 

“Remy an’ ah should go with the group that finds the Assassins Guild,” Rogue suggested. “We know the most ’bout them.”

“Strategically, it would make the most sense for me to go and interrogate whomever we find, so I’ll go with the group going to New Orleans,” Nat decided. 

“I’ll join you,” Clint proclaimed. 

Kitty and Jubilee looked towards each other, having another silent conversation with each other. “So will Kit and I,” Jubilee announced. 

“I’ll go with the group that tracks down the bombs,” Scott said. 

“As will I,” Steve nodded, looking towards that group.

_ “Kitty, _ ” the Professor spoke into Kitty’s mind, and she glanced towards him. “ _ I think that it would be best if Regina went with your group. To avoid another fight between her and Matt?”  _

Kitty nodded briefly before speaking. “Regina, why don’t you come with us?” she offered. 

Regina raised an eyebrow, suspicious, but nodded. “If you want.” 

“I’ll go with them,” Logan said gruffly. “Keep them in line.” 

“I think that it would be best if I stayed behind,” Bruce said nervously. 

“We might need your help with the bombs,” Tony reminded him. “Or if this ends up being a code green.”

“In a fight with civilians?” Bruce took a deep breath, shaking his head. “Better not.”

“Not going to push you,” Steve admitted. “But we could really use your help.” 

“We all need to know what we’re up against,” Charles spoke softly. “This is bigger than anything you can imagine. We have to trust each other, or else people are going to get hurt. Everything changes today,” he looked from person to person individually, but nobody said a word.

_ Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons _

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young) 

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

Chris Evans  _ as  _ Captain America

Robert Downey Jr  _ as  _ Iron Man

Jeremy Renner  _ as  _ Hawkeye

Scarlett Johansson  _ as  _ Black Widow

Mark Ruffalo  _ as  _ Hulk

Samuel L. Jackson  _ as  _ Nick Fury

Clark Gregg  _ as  _ Phil Coulson

Chloe Bennet  _ as  _ Skye

Elizabeth Henstridge  _ as  _ Jemma Simmons

Ian De Caestecker  _ as  _ Leo Fitz

Brett Dalton  _ as  _ Grant Ward

Ming-Na Wen  _ as  _ Melinda May

_ and _

Charlize Theron

_ with _

Vincent D’Onofrio

 

_ S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters _

_ Lower Level _

Skye sat in front of her computer, typing rapidly, clicking through websites and groaning in exasperation whenever her searches turned up negative. “Skye?” May asked, causing her to jump. 

“God, you scared me,” Skye stopped typing for the moment, turning to face. “What’s up?”

May looked over the younger girl carefully before speaking. “I was wondering if you’d had any luck tracking down the employers of the Assassins Guild.”

“Nope. None whatsoever. It’s like they don’t exist, someone completely erased them. All of their transactions would’ve had to be done in person, as well as any communication. I can’t find any similar IP addresses, none of it,” she sighed, putting her head in her hands. 

“Well,” she looked across Skye’s shoulder towards the computer. “Just keep looking. We’re running out of time before the viruses complete.”

“I know, trust me, I know. If I can’t find their employer, then...well bad things happen, people die. I know,” Skye blew out a huff of air before turning to her computer. 

May turned as if she was going to walk away, but paused for a second, glancing back to Skye. “I have faith in you. You can do it.”

“Thanks, May,” Skye murmured, typing once more. A few moments after May left the room, Skye heard another set of footprints approaching her. “No, before you ask, I have not had any luck in locating the Guild’s employer,” she answered without turning around.

“I was actually going to ask,” Ward folded his arms, looking down on her. “When was the last time you slept?”

“I dunno,” Skye didn’t look away. “I was up all night decoding this, and I still haven’t been able to find the employer.”

“But you did find the actual perpetrator. Why do you need to find the employer within the two hour time limit?” Ward asked.

“Because if I don’t find the employer, the majority of the plot and motive is still in the dark. We need all of the information that we can get,” Skye double clicked a link, and for a brief moment she thought she’d found something-until her computer crashed, forcing her to reload everything. 

“If you haven’t found it yet, there’s a decent chance that you won’t find it at all,” Ward pointed out. Skye rolled her chair all the way around so she was facing him, her arms also crossed.

“But I have to keep looking. I can’t just-just let all of New York die if I get tired. Isn’t that the entire point of S.H.I.E.L.D.? To keep going and protecting everyone even after the rest of the world gets tired?” Skye reminded him. 

**Commercial Break**

_ New York City _

_ Time Remaining: 1:15:35 _

“Here we are,” Scott looked up towards the bright sign advertising records and disks. “These are the first coordinates that Skye sent us.” 

“Where are the bombs? Anywhere in the building?” Bobby asked, looking towards the team leader.

“I can take care of that,” Tony answered, tapping on his sunglasses. He wasn’t all suited up, but after a brief moment of scanning, he lead the way inside. “Found it. Backroom computer. Whoever did this knows what they’re doing, they have the entire computer system webbed with this stuff. Not that it’s anything that I can’t take care of.”

“Don’t get full of yourself,” chided Steve. “We haven’t even seen the computer yet.” 

The girl running the counter was around twenty five, and when she saw them, her mouth dropped open. “Hello, sweetheart. Would you mind if mind if my friends and I had a look at your computer back there? It’s really important,” Tony asked sweetly, winking at her. The girl forced her mouth shut, swallowing and nodding, looking from Tony to Steve, then around to the other X-Men. 

“What about Pepper?” Steve asked, looking back towards the girl at the counter for a split second before following the others into the back room. “Would she approve of you flirting like that?”

“It’s called being smooth. Not like I haven’t done it before,” Tony shrugged, looking around towards the computer system. “Here we are.”

“I thought that they said that only the person who set it up would be able to disable it?” Bobby asked. 

“Yes they did. But I’m not fond of listening to other people, so I’m going to try anyway. At least I might be able to slow it down,” Tony shrugged. 

“We should try to evacuate as many people as possible,” Scott recommended. “Piotr, Dan, why don’t you two come with me and try to evacuate the city. Matt and Bobby will stay here with Mr. Stark and Rogers to see if they can help. You can join us when they’re done.”

“Whatever,” Matt muttered.

“Of course, Professor Summers,” Bobby nodded respectively. 

“Good luck,” Rogers said to Scott, who nodded in reply.

“And to you,” he said respectively. “Let’s go.”

_ Central Park, New York City _

_ Time Remaining: 1:07:45 _

“You sure dat dis is where Bella is?” Remy asked, looking around the park at all of the children. “She never liked kids dat much.”

“This is where the Professor located her,” Nat put away her phone, slipping it into a compartment on her uniform. The Professor had gone back to the Institute to track down Belladonna, and all of his searching on Cerebro had lead them here.

“Should we separate?” Kitty suggested. “We’d find her faster that way.”

“Split into pairs,” Clint proposed. 

“Alright,” Logan looked at everyone before talking again. “Rogue, you go with Gumbo. Kitty and Jubilee,” Logan turned to Nat. “Legolas can go with you. Regina, you’re sticking by me.”

“Great,” Regina replied dryly. 

“If anyone encounters her, alert the others before facing her. And try not to kill her,” Nat shot a glare towards Logan. “We need her alive to deactivate the bombs.”

“Each group can take a corner. North, East, South, and West,” Logan instructed. “Hurry, we ain’t got all day.”

_ North Corner  _

_ Time Remaining: 1:05:24  _

“Of course I got the fun group,” Regina muttered to herself as she followed Logan, who was stalking along the edge.

“I can hear you,” he growled. “Someone had to go with me. At least this way I can keep you from exploding.”

“Are you really going to give me lectures on acting rash?” Regina scoffed. 

“Shush,” Logan froze, looking around. 

After about thirty seconds of silence, Regina spoke up. “Do you hear something or not?”

He paused for a beat more before answering her. “No. I just thought I did. Let’s keep looking, but I don’t think she’s over here.”

“Perfect,” Regina grumbled. “Just perfect.”

_ East Corner _

_ Time Remaining: 1:04:52 _

“Have I mentioned how this is a terrible idea?” Clint asked, poking around the trees. 

“Not within the past ten seconds,” Nat reasoned. “You keep muttering that, but you don’t explain it. Do you really think that it’s that bad of a plan?”

“It’s not just the plan,” Clint loaded an arrow, nocking it, but not letting it go. Instead he stared at his invisible target for a moment before taking down his arrow. “I get that these ‘X-Men’ are a powerful asset and stuff, but they’re mostly just kids. They don’t understand all of this. They aren’t trained as much as we are,” Clint groaned. “I’d hate to see all of this blow up in all of our faces because we weren’t prepared.”

“You see the news as much as I do,” Nat pointed out. “From the looks of it, they’re very much aware of the hardships of the world. They get the brunt of it. The X-Men are trained in that aspect of it.”

“So you trust them?” Clint raised an eyebrow.

“I trust that they know what they’re dealing with, and that they’re going to deal with it to the best of their capabilities,” explained Natasha, walking gracefully along the edge of the park.

“Huh,” Clint watched her for a moment before continuing on behind her.

_ South Corner _

_ Time Remaining: 1:02:58 _

“I still don’t get why Belladonna would want to kill all of the superpowered people,” Jubilee huffed. “I mean, what’s in it for her?”

“Well…” Kitty paused, shuffling her feet and looking down. “I did some research last night while everyone was asleep and...”

“And what?” Jubilee turned to face Kitty. “Kit, you know you can tell me anything.”

“I did a lot of research on New York crime. I mean there was a lot to go through, but I was thinking that it was weird that a crime based organization in New Orleans would come and target New York. So after some looking, I realized that someone must’ve reached out to them specifically...the reason this is so hard to track is because it’s passing through so many hands. Whoever hired Belladonna isn’t the person who wanted her services, more like one of many chains. That’s why Skye couldn’t find it online,” Kitty explained, talking quickly.

“How could you find it, then?” Jubilee asked cautiously.

“I looked through old newspaper articles, and I connected the dots in who I thought would be the most reasonable to do something like this. Obviously it’s a huge step, so whoever is doing it is trying to prove something. And they must have a very big problem with mutants or super powered people of any kind. That’s why I think that we already know who the head of all this is,” Kitty stopped, rephrasing it. “I mean, the people who requested it. They would have to be completely different from the person who orchestrated all of this, and that person would be still different from the person who contacted everyone and set it up...anyway, what I was saying is...I think that this is all just the Friends of Humanity.”

Jubilee gasped visibly. “No way. I mean, they suck, and they’re harsh, but would they ever commit genocide like this? It seems a bit much, even for them.”

“I was looking into their history, and I think that it was a more extreme branch of it. But I’m not completely sure, and I didn’t want to bring it up until I had more information on it,” Kitty explained nervously. 

“And who would be the person running all of this?” Jubilee asked.

“Well, the main person with enough connections and manpower to do all of this, is actually in jail right now,” Kitty frowned, twisting her shoe in the dirt momentarily. “I don’t know for sure, but I was thinking maybe a man by the name of Wilson Fisk.”

_ West Corner _

_ Time Remaining: 1:00:43 _

“So,  _ chère, _ ” Remy flipped some cards, looking sideways towards Rogue with a lopsided grin on his face as they walked. “How much did you have to bribe Logan to get to be partners with me?”

Rogue’s face reddened slightly. “Ah didn’t bribe him. Don’t get to full of yourself, Swamp Rat.”

“Wouldn’ dream of it, River Rat,” Remy leaned in towards her, and for a brief moment neither of them moved, until Rogue suddenly yanked herself away.

“Careful, Cajun!” she warned. “You know what happens when people touch my skin. You wanna end up like Carol?”

“ _ Chère,  _ you don’t have to be afraid,” Remy carefully brushed a curl behind her ear. “Remy ain’t afraid. When you gonna stop hidin’ behind dat skin of yours?”

“Hidin’ behind my skin? Is that what you think that ah’m doin’?” Rogue shouted. “If ah touch people, they could die! Ah ain’ hidin’ behind my skin! If ah could touch, even for just a split second, ah would! But ah can’t, and this-this is the only way ah can keep people safe.”

“Hush,  _ chère, _ ” Remy froze, looking around the corner. Suddenly he leapt outwards, then dived beneath a slide. He quickly recovered, but Belladonna was already almost all the way across their side of the playground. Rogue chased her, flying through the air until she landed on top of her. For a moment she had her pinned down, but then Bella kneed her in the stomach, forcing her off. 

Remy through a card at her, which exploded as it hit a tree, sending several thick branches crashing down. In the moment of confusion, Rogue lurched towards her again, this time forcing her into a headlock, and then flying up into the air. Bella kicked and flung around, gasping for air, as Rogue spoke. “You’re gonna be a good little girl and take down all of the bombs that you put around, alright sugar? Otherwise this is gonna get real nasty, real quick.”

Bella stopped flailing, then nodded. Rogue landed gently on the ground, but didn’t loosen her grip. “Remy, be a dear and contact the others?” Rogue asked, and Remy scoffed but nodded, pulling out his communicator. 

“What is it Gumbo?” Logan’s voice growled out. “Do you have her?”

_ Helicopter Heading towards New York CIty _

_ Time Remaining: 0:44:32 _

“I still don’t see why you would do the job,” Regina shook her head to herself. “I mean, what’s in it for you?”

“Money,” Bella laughed. “I wouldn’t expect any of you to understand, since you all are probably above dat.”

“Who hired you?” Logan asked, and when she didn’t answer, he extended his claws, pressing them to her neck. “Who hired you?”

“I ain’t the top. I’m just doin’ my job,” she smiled, even when he pressed it tighter, revealing a drop of blood.

“Dis ain’ her first mass killin’,” Remy told him. “She ain’ gonna crack dat way.”

“And you know all about mass killin’s, don’t you, Remy,” she whispered only loud enough for Logan and Remy to hear. 

Remy’s face darkened visibly. “Don’ know what you’re talkin’ ’bout.”

Logan observed Remy for a moment before continuing on. “If you don’t take down those bombs, I’m going to rip out your kidney and feed it to you, alright bub?” Logan growled. 

“If I sell them out, I’m dead. But I have my own...liability. Ya’ know how hard it is to target all of superpowered New York? Dey can’ blame me if somethin’ goes wrong,” Bella reasoned. “But I’ll be screwed if I don’ get somethin’ out of this.”

“Aside from not dying?” Logan laughed. 

“You want us to delete all of our files on you,” Nat presumed. “Make it like neither you, nor the Assassins Guild, never existed.”

“Ah, you really are good,” Bella smiled widely. “I know all about you, ‘Black Widow’. Us assassins have to stick together, right?” Natasha didn’t even flinch, not looking away. Instead, she leaned in a bit.

“If you take out the bombs, we will delete the files. I will personally make sure there is no trace of you left. If you try anything…” Nat’s eyes roamed across Bella’s body. “Well, I will still, personally, make sure that there is nothing left.”

“Did anyone else just get chills?” Jubilee asked, rubbing her arms.

“Perfect,” Bella smiled again, her eyes gleeful. “Pleasure doing buisness with you.”

**Commercial Break**

_ New York City, East Side _

_ Time Remaining: 0:05:33 _

“You’re sure this is the last one?” Kitty confirmed nervously.

“What? You don’t trust me?” Bella asked innocently. “I want my freedom as much as you want all of these people in New York to live.”

“Scott just contacted me again,” Logan said. “He said that they’re almost done with evacuations,” he glared towards Bella. “Just incase something goes wrong.”

“Y’alls trust in me is outstanding,” Bella said, deadpan. “Just gimme a few more minutes, okay?”

_ New York City, West Side _

_ Time Remaining: 0:05:09 _

“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave New York city as soon as possible,” Steve asked politely to a small dark skinned woman. 

“You-are you Steve Rogers?” the woman asked in awe.

“Yes I am, ma'am,” he nodded. “And I have to ask you to please evacuate as soon as possible.”

“Of course!” her head bobbed, and she rushed outwards.

“I know you love being polite and all, but we don’t exactly have the time,” Tony said as he pulled out a megaphone. 

“Where did you-you know what, never mind,” Scott shook his head. 

“If everyone can exit in a cool and orderly fashion as fast as possible,” he ordered into it. 

“They said that they only have one bomb left to defuse,” Scott explained.

“That’s if the assassin chick is telling the truth,” Matt pointed out. “Last time she tried to kill us.”

“Well, this is fun,” Tony clasped his hands together. “Everyone’s gone. Let’s get a move on.”

_ New York City, East Side _

_ Time Remaining: 0:03:24 _

“All done,” Bella stood up, holding the defused bomb. “Dis isn’t going to blow up any time soon.”

“Good,” Jubilee nodded. “Thank you.”

“Da pleasure’s all mine,” she smiled, then suddenly pulled the curtain down, dashing across the room. She punched through the drywall, then pulled a lever. “I ain’ an idiot. I defused da bombs, but y’all won’t be as lucky as the rest of New York.”

There was a small explosion from the wall, blowing them back. By the time they got up, Bella was gone. Flames licked the sides of the walls, quickly spreading as smoke engulfed the room. “Is everyone okay?” Logan called out. Everyone coughed out replies, pulling themselves up. 

“That backstabbing bitch!” Regina shouted, coughing into her arm as the smoke and flames continued to grow. 

“Shoulda known not to trust her,” Remy shook his head. “Ain’ in her nature to keep her end of deals.”

“We have to get out of here!” Nat expertly dove through the falling beams and across the building towards the door. 

“Hurry up,” Logan warned, when suddenly there was a large creak and a overly large section of the roof collapsed inwards and falling on top of Remy, Regina, and Clint, who at the last minute dove on top to try to cover them.

“Remy!” Rogue screamed, darting through the fire and attempting to rip of the room.

“Kid, we gotta get out of her!” Logan shouted. “This entire place is gonna blow,” his voice was thick, but he grabbed her arm and yanked her out. As he, Nat, Jubilee, Kitty, and Rogue collapsed outwards onto the streets, the building exploded, a mixture of smoke and flames soaring out the windows.

“No!” Rogue gasped, falling down to her feet.

“No…” Jubilee whispered, looking down, tears streaking her face. Kitty pulled her in, and they hugged each other tightly. Logan’s jaw twitched, and he looked down, his breathing heavy.

“I’m sorry, kid,” he muttered. 

Rogue hugged herself, pressing her knees to her chest, regret pouring into her. Natasha looked down, her eyes watering but no tears coming out. She brushed her hand against the arrow necklace that was tucked into her uniform, then she looked back towards the burning building. “We did our assignment. New York is safe. We finished our mission, that’s what matters…” she trailed off. “I think that we should go back. Report back to Fury. We’re obviously not taking Bella off our lists. We should try to track her down, but I doubt that we’ll be able to find her, we’ve never been able to track them down before…”

There was a large amount of creaking coming from the building, and Nat paused, looking over towards it. All of a sudden, Clint, Remy, and Regina burst out, covered in soot but looking very much alive. “There was a trap door,” Clint explained, coughing up smoke. “Barely made it.”

“Remy! You’re alright!” Rogue flew over towards him, then pressed her gloved hand against his lips, kissing it. She pulled back, pointing at him angrily. “Ah hate you!” she hugged him tightly, pulling him as close as possible. 

Remy seemed shocked at first, but chuckled to himself, hugging her back. “I’ll never understand dis woman.”

“We did it,” Nat swallowed, nodding towards Clint. 

“Yeah, we did it,” he pulled her in for a brief hug.

_ Avengers Tower _

_ Yellow by Coldplay plays until End Credits _

“I think,” Tony declared, pouring himself a scotch. “That we all deserve a drink.”

“I’m glad to hear that you succeeded,” said Bruce. “It would’ve been a tragedy if you didn’t.”

“Shame that the psycho lady got away,” Tony shrugged, taking a sip of his drink. 

“Well,” Steve sighed. “You can’t get them all.”

“It was a pleasure to work with you guys,” Scott acknowledged. 

“Likewise,” agreed Tony. “I was...impressed. To say the least. You helped us save New York.”

“I hope that we’ll get to see you again, in less...disastrous circumstances,” hoped Nat. 

“I think that I can agree with that,” Logan said as he popped a beer.

_ Unknown Prison _

“Is it done?” a thick man spoke into the phone, glass between him and another man. 

“No...there were...complications. The bombs were defused in time. Only one building burned, and nobody was killed,” the man replied.

“Shame. I do hate failing customers...when they ask for their money back, which they will, only give them 75 percent. Say it’s compensation, and that it cost money to set up. Tell them it’s in their contract,” he suggested.

“Of course, sir,” the man nodded.

“It really is a shame. I was hoping to...kill two birds with one stone. All of these superpowered people running amok in the city...alas, we can’t have them all,” he shrugged.

“Fisk, I have an update on you know who, if you want-” the man started.

Fisk put up his hand, motioning for him to stop. “Not right now. One problem at a time. I will talk to you next week.”

“Of course,” the man nodded.

“And send half of our makings to Nathaniel, will you? He needs to know where I stand,” Fisk ordered.

“Of course. Until next week, sir,” the man nodded, hanging up the phone.

**End Credits**

Promo for next episode: ‘Shades of Blue and Grey’:

A teenage girl with Major Depressive disorder affects her school when she develops powerful telepathic abilities, and Jean Grey seeks to help her.


	17. Shades of Blue and Grey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Promo for this Episode:  
> A girl with Major Depressive Disorder effects her school when she develops powerful telepathic abilities, and Jean Grey seeks to help her.  
> SEVERE TRIGGER WARNING. THIS EPISODE IS NOT ENTIRELY NECESSARY TO THE PLOT, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK AND ONLY IF YOU KNOW IT IS SAFE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N again, this episode is extremely triggering to anyone suicidal, depressed, or who cuts. Please do not read it if it is a risk to your mental health. This story's formatting was inspired by the amazing aroguegambit7's mutant high revolutionry.

**Season One, Episode Seventeen**

**Shades of Blue and Grey**

**THIS ENTIRE EPISODE HAS A TRIGGER WARNING**

_ Bayville High School _

_ New York, New York _

“Don’t expect this test to be easy,” the teacher, a bald man, warned as he handed it out. “I know that lots of you have made it by just skating through classes, but now you’re big kids.”

A blonde girl stared absently at her paper, her eyes distant. Her hand trembled slightly, and she stared at her pencil, not picking it up. 

The clock ticked, almost mockingly. The blonde took a deep breath in, finally willing herself to pick up the pencil and at least try. If she messed up, she was dead. Everyone was just expecting her to do the best, because she was the smart kid and even she herself knew that she should be able to do it. But what was the point? Her hand trembled even more and more, the ache spreading through her chest. Everyone else was flipping the page, but she was still only on the third question. Her name was written at the top in neat handwriting, ‘Halle Blue’, all perfect and neat. Finally she gathered herself, pressing her pencil to the page to answer, and just as she started to write it snapped off, the lead flying across the room.

A girl with brown hair in the left corner suddenly stood up. “No. No, no, no, no! I quit! What’s the point?” she ripped up her paper, tears streaming down her face. “We just keep going and doing all this but it doesn’t matter-what’s the damn point!” she through all of her pencils and binder on the ground, kicking them and snapping the pencils. “We don’t matter! This doesn’t matter! If we mess up everyone’s watching and we have to meet the bloody standard-”

“Sadie, do you want to go outside and get a drink of water, calm down, then come back and try again?” the bald teacher offered. 

“No!” she screamed, putting her hands to her temples. “I just want to be done!” she shoved everything off the corner of the teacher’s desk that was by her. “I just want to be done already! I’m so damn tired and I’m done!”

“Sadie, come with me to the office-” the teacher tried again, tugging at her arm, but she smacked him away. 

“No!” she let out an inhuman sob, falling to the ground and picking up a pen. She let out another sob as she began to rip it across her wrists. Blood blossomed, and the teacher tore the pen out of her hand, picking her up by the shoulders. 

“Sadie, come on, you need to go home, it’s okay,” he tried to soothe her, but she kicked, trying to pull away from her.

“No! It just hurts so much I can’t breath,” she let out a shaky breath. The teacher pulled her out of the room, and as he left, Sadie’s eyes met Halle’s, and Halle bit her lip, staring at her own broken pencil, which she had snapped at some point, and Halle unconsciously pulled her sweatshirt sleeves down. The second they were out of the room, the entire class erupted in conversation.

_ Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons _

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young) 

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

Sabrina Carpenter  _ as  _ Halle Blue*

 

_ The Mansion _

_ Jean’s Classroom _

Jean sat on her chair cross legged, reading her book. It wasn’t often that she had freetime like this. No homework to grade, no world to save. Nothing but her, and her book, and quietness. At least for the next ten minutes. Then her class would start, and the quietness would most certainly end. 

She had admittedly read this book several times-it was really good-and was just getting to the good part when she felt something brush against her mind. Closing her eyes, she reached out. Jean could easily tell that nobody was trying to get into her mind, but there was something…

Suddenly she felt like something was pouring into her mind. Emotions filled her up that weren’t her own. Sorrow, depression, self-hate, anxiety, all of it welled up inside her. For a few seconds Jean froze, unmoving as she attempted to process all of it. Slowly and carefully, she pulled herself out of whomever's mind she’d entered. She wasn’t connected to Cerebro, and she certainly wasn’t as powerful as the Professor, so whomever she was sensing had to be a telepath. She considered doing a little bit more searching, but kids had begun to trickle into the classroom.

So instead she put on a smile, looking across to the kids. “Hello, class. How was your Danger Room session?”

_ The Professor’s Office _

“Professor?” Jean knocked on the outside of the door hesitantly. “May I come in?”

“Of course,” the Professor marked his place in his book, setting it down. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” she assured him, sitting down across from him. “It’s just, earlier yesterday before my class started, I sensed someone. It seemed like a telepath, but I don’t think they were reaching out on purpose. Whoever it was, they seemed like they were just a kid, but I sensed so much misery…” Jean paused, biting her lip. “I was just wondering if you could possibly look on Cerebro and see if you could find someone like that? I get the feeling like...they need our help. I can understand if you’re busy.”

“Of course,” the Professor nodded. “I must admit, I didn’t sense anything. If it is someone as powerful as you’re describing, then I should be able to sense them over this distance…”

“You didn’t sense them?” Jean repeated, her eyebrows knit together. 

“It’s most peculiar, but I assure you I will look. Follow me, we’ll see what we can find,” he suggested, exiting the room.

“I just don’t understand it. The amount of emotional pain...how one person could bare it,” Jean said softly to herself, following the Professor along.

_ Halle’s House _

Halle sat on the bottom of her bathtub, staring up. She fingered a razor gently, pressing it against her skin. She just needed some relief, everything was just putting so much pressure on her and if she didn’t let some of it go she was going to explode on the inside. She was careful to trace over the old marks, but when the blood blossomed, she just felt worse. She had done that to Sadie. She had just passed on her pain to someone else who didn’t deserve it, and now that girl had her demons and it was her fault. She had caused someone pain again, she deserved the repercussions of it. She deserved the pain. Standing up, her wrists raw, she turned on the shower, letting it soak her until she was cold to the bone, wrists stinging, and all the blood had disappeared down the drain.

“You alright, sweetie?” her mother called though the door. 

“Yeah,” she replied through the door. “I’m fine. Just taking a shower,” and even to her own ears it sounded like the truth.

**Commercial Break**

_ Inside Cerebro _

“If you’ll please hold still,” the Professor instructed, placing the headpiece on. “Let me know if you sense a mind similar to the one you felt before.”

“Of course,” Jean nodded, looking through the millions of lights that had appeared throughout the room. “I don’t even know their name…”

“Sometimes connecting with someone’s mind is more powerful than having a conversation with them. If you believe that they are reaching out to you for assistance, even unknowingly, I trust that you will be able to find them again,” the Professor explicated. 

_ Rec Room _

“Kitty, for the last time, ah ain’ puttin’ any of that stuff on my face!” Rogue explained, darting away from an overly excited Kitty who was holding a palette of eyeshadow.

“C’mon, stop shaming it! You should put a little more effort into your outfit,” she chastised. 

“Remy like her just the way she is,” the Cajun mutant’s eyes roamed across her body.

“Keep your eyes up here, Lebeau, ah am a lady,” she sniffed, crossing her arms. 

Remy snorted. “Just ’cause you call yourself dat don’ make it true.”

“Your mother raise you to treat women like that?” Rogue leaned into a chair across from his. 

“I’m always a good little boy, an’ you know it,” his eyes took on a devious glint, and he leaned forwards to her. “But if I were bad, you could punish me for all’a my sins.”

Rogue smirked in response, not answering, instead choosing to lean in, too, biting her lip. “Is it just me,” Jubilee started, leaning into Kitty and lowering her voice to a whisper. “Are they acting…”

“Couple-y? Relationship-y? Like there’s forty more times the amount of sexual tension then there was before?” Kitty suggested. 

“Pretty much,” agreed Jubilee. “I mean, seriously, look at them.”

“Dis one can hear you,” called over Remy. 

“You going to answer our questions or just leave us wondering, then?” Jubilee asked. “Because my little shipper heart can only take so much-”

“You guys are worse than all of those fangirls you see crowdin’ outside them concerts with posters waitin’ to see a boyband. Can’ you nose into someone else’s love life?” Rogue asked.

“So Remy  _ is  _ part of your love life now!” Kitty exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “Amara owes me ten bucks, she didn’t think it would happen until next month.”

“Lucky. I owe Regina twenty because I thought that it would happen two weeks ago,” Jubilee frowned. 

“Y’all were bettin’ on us?” Rogue explained. 

“You kids really need to get some form of entertainment aside from others,” Remy wriggled his finger mockingly.

“I’d turn on the TV but you never know what you’re going to find these days. I don’t want to hear about more murders or mutant rights acts,” Kitty admitted.

“Speakin’ ’bout murders and mutant rights,” Rogue started. “Did any of y’all hear anything more ’bout that group from the Morlocks who were killin’ politicians?”

“Come to think of it, no,” Jubilee answered, thinking back, then looking to Kitty. 

“Me neither, it’s like they disappeared off the face of the Earth,” she shrugged. “Remy?”

“ _ Non, _ ” Remy shook his head, looking downward. “Nothin’.”

“Alright. Ah haven’t heard anything, either, and ah just can’t shake this feelin’-ah dunno, that somethin’ terrible is gonna happen. Or did. Ah suppose it’s left over from absorbin’ the Siren girl. She had a Hell of a lot of baggage in her, left over from the massacre and all, and ah was just thinkin’ ’bout it,” Rogue shook her head, not noticing Remy looking over her carefully. “Nevermind.”

_ Inside Cerebro _

“I believe,” the Professor said. “That I may have located the person who you are sensing. A young girl by the name of Halle Blue, lives just a few miles from here. Can you sense her?”

The redhead closed her eyes, focusing. Images rushed past her, almost too fast to comprehend, and she opened her eyes, nodding. “You’re right. Thank you, Professor.”

“You’re welcome, Ms. Grey,” he nodded, removing the headpiece. “May I ask why you asked for my assistance if you were able to sense her from this distance on your own?”

“I suppose,” reasoned Jean. “That I just wanted confirmation. I wasn’t sure…”

“Well, I expect that you’ll be on your way,” said the Professor as he exited Cerebro alongside Jean. “Please, feel free to extend an invitation for this young lady to join us here, should you feel that it will benefit her.”

“I believe that a support system would be good,” agreed Jean. “I just have to hope to God that she takes it.”

“May you have the best of luck,” he wished as she headed towards the door, stopping to pull her coat off the hook.

“Thank you, Professor,” she smiled in return, exiting out the door.

_ Bayville High School _

_ New York, New York _

“May I ask what’s going on?” Jean said to one of the teachers as she looked around the school to all of the whispering students. She caught words like suicide, and broke down, even crazy a few times. “Did something happen?”

“There was an...incident in Mr. Walden's classroom yesterday. On of the students had a severe mental breakdown during a test…” the teacher bit her lip. “Sadie never showed any signs of mental illness before, and her parents report that she didn’t at home either. Nothing in her room, anywhere.”

“Wow, that’s awful,” Jean sighed. “Is that something that happens often? I know that sometimes school can be stressful, but still…”

“Before this week, we’d only had two, maybe three violent breakdowns like that in the past ten years. Now, Sadie’s the third in the past month. We’re starting to wonder if it’s something in the water or along those lines,” the teacher shrugged. 

“I hope that she’s okay,” Jean said apologetically, before walking along to the classroom where she could tell that Halle was in. Just looking in, she could feel the depressive aurora surrounding the girl and filling the classroom. Every single one of the students in there had shadows under their eyes, all of them lined up like broken dolls. 

Halle was tracing her pencil along her paper, not paying attention to whatever the teacher was saying. Even the teacher himself looked like he was depressed, regretting his life choices. Jean knocked softly on the outside of the door, causing only a few of the students to bother to look towards her. The teacher dragged his feet as he walked over to the door, opening it slowly. “Can I help you?”

“Yes-yes,” Jean cleared her throat, looking at all of the students. “I’m looking for Halle Blue? I was told that she was in this classroom.”

Halle looked up slowly, then took a very slow and deliberate deep breath before standing up. “Yeah?” 

“Can you come outside with me for a moment, please?” Jean asked gently. 

“Sure,” she mumbled. After closing the door, Jean led her to a empty classroom, shutting the door and leaving them alone in the room. “Who are you?”

“My name is Jean Grey,” she said kindly. “I’m from Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.”

“The Mutant school?” Halle raised an eyebrow. 

“Are you aware that you’re a telepath?” Jean spoke softly. 

“I-” her eyes watered, and she look down. “Y-yeah. I got the feeling. But I never read anyone’s mind or anything like that.”

“I could sense you earlier,” Jean stopped midsentence, not sure how to continue. “You...you were in pain. I want to help you.”

“Yeah, you and the rest of the world,” she grumbled. “Help me by showing me that it’s just in my head. By telling me that I have so much to look forward to, that there are people out there who have it so much worse than I do, and so in reality it’s not so bad, and I need to stop whining. I know how this goes.”

“No, not at all,” said Jean compassionately, placing her hands on her shoulders. “Just because other people have to deal with crap doesn’t undermine yours.”

Halle finally started to cry, and Jean winced, reinforcing her mental walls to keep out the young girl’s power, then pulled her in for a hug. “Oh, God, I’m crying. Shit. I haven’t-I’m trying not to-”

“Holding it in isn’t going to change anything,” Jean soothed. “You need to let it go, otherwise it’s just going to get worse.”

“What’s the point?” Halle pulled away, rubbing her arms. “We go to school, and they tell us to get all A’s and a 4.0 or we’re shit. We go to college, keep going to school. We work, have kids, keep going and working until we die. Then what? It’s shit, all of it. There’s no point.”

“Halle, you can’t think like that!” Jean clasped her hands between her own. “If you don’t look for the good in things, then you can’t move forward.”

“I just don’t see the point, and people keep telling me look for the good and I can’t see it and I just feel worthless. I’m a waste of space-” she took in a deep breath. “Why am I telling you all of this? I don’t-I’m sorry.”

“You just need to let it out sometimes, don’t apologize,” Jean hugged her tightly. 

“I need to go to class,” Halle wiped away her tears, sniffling momentarily before pushing past Jean and out the classroom, not noticing a freshman by the water fountain, whose eyes followed her down the hall.

**Commercial Break**

_ The Mansion _

_ Regina’s room _

_ Like I’m Gonna Lose You by Meghan Trainor plays over next scene _

Regina hastily folded up her clothes, tucking them into her drawers carelessly. She folded up a pair of pants, stuffing them into the bottom drawer, and turned to fold the next shirt when she paused, noticing what it was for the first time.

The shirt itself was nothing special. Just a plain graphic tee that said ‘Like a Boss’ in fancy lettering. What caught her attention was the stains on it. Blood. Rin’s, to be specific. That was the shirt that she had been wearing the day of the Morlock Massacre. She had scrubbed so hard, trying to get the stains out. Nothing worked. Why didn’t she throw the shirt away? It was just a reminiscent of a painful memory that she would rather forget. 

Instead, Regina lowered herself to the ground, clutching the shirt close to her. She didn’t cry, just sat there, thinking and letting the memories flash over her. Trying to find peace at what she’d lost. Rin might be dead, they’d never gotten word of the surgery. But that was a while ago, and Regina needed to move on. Stop being upset over losing something she never started. It was okay.

There it was.

Peace.

_ Outside Halle’s House _

Jean stood just outside the door, debating whether or not to knock. She didn’t know whether or not they were aware of Halle’s mutant status. If they weren’t, then she didn’t want to be the one to tell them, especially if it would further endanger Halle’s well being. After another brief moment of waiting, Jean knocked, listening to the bustle of movement inside.

“Hello?” a short woman who appeared slightly pregnant answered the door. “Can I help you?”

“Yes,” Jean said. “My name is Jean Grey, from Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. The Bayville High sent in several applications for some students, and we have selected a few of the options to do interviews with. May I come in?”

“Of course, please take a seat,” offered Mrs. Blue. “I’m sorry if I seem a bit unprepared, it’s just I wasn’t aware that they were doing interviews. Or even sending out application.”

“This is a regular routine for Bayville. They send out many applications to many schools,” Jean assured her, reaching out with her mind and trying to find Halle. 

_ Halle’s Bedroom _

_ All I Want by Kodaline over next few scenes _

Halle sat perched on the end of her bed, staring at the ground, unwilling to find even enough nerve to close her eyes. It would just be so much easier on everyone without her. Her mother, her father. The classmates. Her future sibling would be better off not knowing her at all. If she ended it now, her sibling would never have their life screwed up by her. They could live normal.

The crumpled up note that she received after fourth hour sat next to her on the bed. ‘Get the Hell out of Bayville, mutant scum. Your kind aren’t wanted here.’ It would only get worse. Everyone had high expectations for her before, and now they dropped to the ground and it would just be that much harder for her to prove them wrong. But what if they weren’t wrong? She was a living screw up, and she needed to just make it stop.

Halle didn’t remember grabbing the paper clip off of her essay. She just knew that she was running it, again and again and again, distracting herself, or causing the pain she knew she deserved. Halle wasn’t sure which anymore. There wasn’t a point, the pain wouldn’t go away. She would keep going and it would still be there, haunting her, killing her from the inside out. She would be dead inside. It just would be so much better for everyone if it ended. She couldn’t remember being happy. Was she ever happy, or was it just...not knowing? What the world held in her future? The screwed up moments when she thought she could do it until she realized how much pain her mere existence caused? And now with the added fact of being a mutant, how much longer until she wasn’t just verbally abused, but physically? She saw the Mutant Massacre, how much longer until her family was attacked and murdered because of what she was? She was literally a threat on their lives.

It all needed to stop. The sound, endless noise, the pain. All of it needed to go away.

She could never find peace if it didn’t.

_ The Living Room _

“May I speak to Halle? Is she here?” asked Jean politely. As she said that, she felt Halle’s emotions disappear. A sense of urgency overwhelmed her, one that unfortunately Mrs. Blue didn’t seem to share.

“She’s in her room right now, I’ll go get her,” she slowly pulled herself up. “Halle, dear, someone’s here to speak to you.”

Jean followed behind, quickening her pace when here was no reply. “Halle?” she called. “Halle, it’s me, Jean Grey.”

Mrs. Blue stopped at the door, shaking the door knob. “It’s locked. Halle, let me in,” no answer. “Halle, let me in right now or you’re grounded,” still no answer. “I’m sorry about this, she’s been acting distant lately. I think she’s just going through one of those phases,” she knocked on the door again. “Halle, let me in,” not even a sign of movement. Dread began to fill Jean, and she nudged past Mrs. Blue, knocking on the door harder.

“Halle, please, let me in, we can talk this out,” she pleaded.

Mrs. Blue seemed to realize the seriousness of what was going on as a look of terror spread across her face and panic filled her voice. “Halle, baby, please let me in.”

Jean pushed past her all the way, kicking in the door, which swung open. Mrs. Blue’s scream rang through the room, wracked with sobs as she fell to the floor. Hanging from the fan, absolutely still, was Halle Blue. A chair was knocked over underneath of her, and her wrists were cut deeply.

“Halle,” Jean whispered, tears flooding her eyes. “No…”

“No! My baby!” Mrs. Blue hugged herself tightly on the floor. “This can’t be happening.”

Jean took a deep breath in, reminding herself to stay strong. She telekinetically undid the rope, slowly lowering the lifeless girl to the ground. Mrs. Blue immediately rushed over to the girl’s side, hugging her to her chest. Jean walked over to the phone, dialing 911 and trying to calm herself as it rang. “911, what is your emergency?”

“Hello,” she took a deep breath in again. “I’m at 9553 Stars Hollow lane, and a girl just committed suicide.”

**Commercial Break**

_ The Mansion _

As soon as Jean entered the Mansion, Scott enveloped her in a tight hug. “I got your message. I’m so sorry. How are you holding up.”

She wiped away a stray tear, looking up at Scott. “I dunno. The girl she just-she didn’t have any hope. I feel like I failed her. I promised that I would help her.”

“Some people can’t be helped,” he comforted her, rubbing her shoulder. “Not if they don’t want to.”

“Her mother-she didn’t even have any idea of what was going on. When Halle’s door was locked and she wasn’t responding, she just said ‘she’s going through a phase’. How can someone’s mother not notice the child is hurting?” Jean grasped at the thought as if it were a foreign concept.

“I don’t know,” he hugged her again. “I don’t know.”

_ Upper Levels _

“Why are you acting so jumpy? It was a simple question!” Rogue exclaimed. “Why do you always do that? Ah can’t trust anything you say ’bout your past ’cus you’re always lyin’ about it!”

“Why do you need to know everythin’ dat’s goin’ on in dis one’s head? Can’ a fellow have a little privacy?” he shot back, equally angry as their voices escalated.

“Never know what’s gonna come out of your mouth! Always sweet talk, second the topic gets to you suddenly it’s nothin’ but silence!” accused Rogue.

“Course you wanna pry every little fact outta me, just ’cus you don’ have them all laid out on display in dat head of yours for everyone to see!” Remy’s comment was greeted by a book flying at his stomach and tossing him against the wall. 

“Just crawl back to the bayou then, you cajun filth!” screamed Rogue. “If livin’ here with all of us is such a misery for ya!”

“Maybe I will! None of dem tried to get all’a my secrets outta me ’cus they hated not knowin’!” he retaliated.

“Ah was just tryin’ to get to know you!” another book flew, and Remy leaped out of it’s path just in time. “Is that such’a shame? For a girl to wanna know her boyfriend beyond his name and the fact that his ex is an assassin hell bent on killin’ him?”

She flew towards him, but he twisted around, pinning her to the wall with his bo staff, their faces inches apart. “You really wanna know dis one?” he asked. 

“Is that such a problem for ya’, Cajun?” she asked, slightly breathless. 

“The past ain’ always a nice thing, River Rat,” he warned her.

“Don’ need to tell me twice,” she responded as he let go.

“Den let me tell you the story of Diablo Blanco,” he started. “Also known as the white devil.”

**End Credits**

Promo for Next Episode ‘Honor’:

Logan is called to Japan, where an old enemy awaits him to settle an old score.


	18. Honor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Promo for this Episode:  
> Logan is called to battle, where an old enemy awaits him to settle an old score.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Please note that the promo changed as I realized there was an error that conflicted with this chapter.  
> Also, this stories formatting was inspired by aroguegambit7's mutant high: revolutionary.   
> Enjoy :-)

**Season One, Episode Eighteen**

**Honor**

_ In the Garage _

Logan took out the key from his motorcycle, shutting it off and pocketing the key. Riding around the city always helped clear his head, and it was much easier to be angry at pedestrians than mass murderers or super villians. And after last night, he could use the distraction. 

Just thinking about her, he could already pick up traces of her scent from Scott’s car across the garage. Picturing her red hair, her laugh, her voice. He’d tried to do the honorable thing, back off from her when she was clearly in love with Scott, but just seeing her last night with him when she came back sobbing was enough to make him jealous of four-eyes again. He wished that he were the one holding her while she cried, assuring her that it wasn’t her fault. 

Logan was so lost in his thoughts that it wasn’t until he’d reached the Rec Room that he realised something was off. The normally loud hallways were empty. Not a single student or kid ran across the halls, watched tv, chatted with their friends. the place was empty. He sniffed, looking across the room and piecing together what had happened. The scent was sharp, but familiar. He could practically see the shapes of the attackers. They had to be well trained, to take out so many. And well armed. Logan sniffed again, detecting traces of chloroform. 

Peeking into one of the rooms, he saw kids unconscious on their beds. So whoever attacked wasn’t after all of them. They knocked the younger ones out and threw them on their beds, continuing on to their targets…

Further down the hallway, Logan was still unable to detect the scents of any of the teachers, or any of the older students. Once he was able to detect the attackers were gone-for better or for worse-he took a chance towards calling out. “Jean? Ro? Professor?” no reply.

He turned down another hall, listening for movement. Suddenly he froze catching a scent and chasing it down. Once he turned down another hallway, he saw a limp form at the other end, tied up and head covered. He ran over, yanking off the bag on the figure’s head. Underneath of it was a semi-conscious Rogue, her hair falling in front of her face. “Rogue?” he propped her up, her eyes opening all the way. 

“Logan?” she mummered, then became more alert. “Logan! These ninja people took the X-Men!”

“Then we’ll get them back,” he cut through the ropes and helped her up.

“One of them knew you!” Rogue recalled. “He said you’ll never see the X-Men again unless you fight him. Tomorrow,” As she said it, Logan sniffed the air, and frowned, smelling his scent all over her. “Who is he?”

“The Silver Samurai,” Logan answered, his voice low and gravelly.  

_ Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons _

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young) 

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

Tao Okamoto  _ as  _ Mariko Yashida

Will Yun Lee  _ as  _ Silver Samurai

_ Three Hou _ _ rs Ago _

_ The Kitchen _

“What are you doing?” Jean asked, her hands on her hips as she entered the kitchen, catching Jubilee, Rogue, Remy, and Bobby eating leftovers from a container.

“Uh…” Jubilee swallowed nervously. “Nothing. Just making sure that this food is still good...you know, if it was spoiled we’d have to throw it out, and...we wouldn’t want that.”

“Uh-huh. That’s last night’s leftovers,” Jean pointed out.

“Oh, is it?” Rogue chuckled nervously. “Whoops.”

“Our mistake,” Bobby put the top on the food, and put it back in the fridge, staring after it longingly.

“Fess up. This doesn’t have to do with Kitty’s offer to make dinner tonight, does it?” asked Jean, plucking the second container out of Remy’s hands.

“Dis one’s a good samaritan,” Remy said innocently. “Jus’ figured it would be easier to not hurt Kitty’s feelin’s if I was already full.”

“Kitty is being very generous, offering to cook for all of us. It’s rude to eat before hand,” Jean sniffed. “Besides, she can’t be that bad, can she? I think that you’re all just being dramatic.”

“Do you remember the last time she tried to make us dinner?” Kitty reminded her. 

“Well-” she froze suddenly, listening, then began running through the Mansion, the others rushing behind her. 

“What’s going on Ms. Grey?” Jubilee panted, running as fast as she could to keep up with the redhead. 

“The school is under attack,” Jean dashed behind a corner, motioning for the others to follow suit. “Shh…” for a few moments it was dead silent, then suddenly Jubilee was yanked back by her hair. She let out a catlike howl, being pulled back. 

She shot plasma at her attacker, who moved with extreme grace. Many more ninjas poured seemingly out of the walls, yanking them back and tying them up. The only one who they were really having trouble with was Rogue, who was tossing them aside like they were flies in efforts to get to the others and free them. “ _ Hokanohito to sorera o okimasu _ ,”  _ (put them with the others.) _ one of them ordered to the other, who began to drag away Remy, Jubilee, Bobby, along with an unconscious Jean. 

“ _ Soshite, on'nanoko?” (And the girl?)  _ one of them grunted in reply as Rogue tossed him across the room like a rag doll.

“ _ Kanojo wa messēji o haishin suru koto ga dekimasu,” (she can deliver the message.)  _ the commander decided, appearing suddenly behind Rogue and sticking a needle in her neck.

“Rogue!” Remy screamed, trying to pull away but unable to as they yanked them back. Rogue swayed, continuing to fight but her actions slowing sluggishly until she collapsed to the ground.

“Tell Logan that if he ever wants to see them again, he’ll come to fight by tomorrow,” one of the ninjas whispered in her ear as she fell.

“Rogue!” Remy continued to scream as they were pulled away and the others tied up Rogue, putting a bag over her head.

_ Present _

_ Outside Mansion _

“Logan, what’s goin’ on?” Rogue asked, following him outside as he angrily marched to start up his motorcycle. 

“Old enemies, old fights,” he grumbled. 

“Logan, you have to explain what we’re up against,” she exclaimed, pulling the keys out of his hand. “We can’t go into this blind.”

“It happened a few years ago,” Logan spoke after a few minutes of silence. “Feels like another lifetime. I was in Japan, with a woman. Isn’t it always a woman? Her name was Mariko, and I wanted to marry her. But her father, he wanted her to marry a rich and respectable man by the name of Kenuichio Harada. He was part of a respectable clan. He challenged me to a fight to the death. He had the mutant ability to supercharge his sword to cut through anything. I didn’t even need a sword. But the rules were simple. No powers allowed,” Logan paused, staring off into the distance as if he could see it all happening in front of him. “I won, but I didn’t kill him. Mariko...she didn’t want me to. She told me to leave, and never come back. And I did,” he sighed. 

“Ah don’ get it. He got the girl, won the fight. What more could he want?” Rogue asked.

“What he always wanted,” Logan took the keys back, turning on the motorcycle and tossing Rogue a helmet. “A fight to the death.”

**Commercial Break**

_ Unknown Location _

Jubilee groaned, slowly pulling herself out of unconsciousness. “Where am I?” 

“I have no idea,” replied Kitty, who was tied up to a post like Jubilee and the others a few feet away.

“Kit!” Jubilee exclaimed. “You’re here! You can phase us out of here!”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Kitty nodded towards the snipers trained on them from the balcony. “They already sent down a warning shot down via small circular blade thingy when Remy tried to charge his rope.”

“Cut off some of my hair,” he frowned.

“Well…” Jubilee struggled to think of what to say. “What do we do? Why are we here?”

“I don’ know,  _ petite _ ,” answered Remy. 

_ Japanese Embassy House _

“What makes you think that they’re here?” Rogue asked, pulling off her helmet. 

“Because he’s a coward,” grumbled Logan. He tried the door, which swung open, unlocked. “That ain’t good.”

“Looks like he knew you were coming,” Rogue observed, brushing past the doors. 

They searched the house, finding it empty in all of the rooms. Logan stopped outside of the kitchen, motioning for her to listen. There were movements in the room, the faucet turning on and off, the hiss of water boiling, the whistle of the tea kettle, little noises here and there giving away their presence. “Stay out here and stand guard.”

Rogue looked like she wanted to say more, but she didn’t, nodding and taking her place outside the door. “Don’t die,” she suggested.

He barged in the room, ready to fight whatever adversary was in there. Instead of a vicious man or a group of ninjas, however, he was faced with something much, much more terrifying.

His ex fiance.

“Mariko,” he said indifferently. “Where is Harada?”

“Logan-san,” she looked down at a china cup that she had dropped, bending down to pick up the broken fragments. “I told you not to come and see me.”

“Why did Harada take my friends?” he repeated.

“He is vying for leadership with the Yakuza,” Mariko said hesitantly. “But the trials, they include wiping all failure from their past. And nobody has ever beaten him.”

“Except for me,” finished Logan.

“If he were to just issue a request-” started Mariko again.

“I would’ve told him to buzz off,” he nodded. “Yakuza is his problem, not mine. I just want my friends back. Mariko, please, tell me where they are.”

“Will you go?” asked Mariko. “Will you promise not to face my husband in battle?”

“Yeah,” he promised. “I’ll no longer have a reason to fight him.”

“There is a warehouse,” she turned away, not facing him. “Near the docks. Their symbol marks the front. Do you know it?” no reply. “Logan-san?” she turned to face him again, but he was already gone.

“You!” Harada barged in, angry. “You have betrayed me!”

“This fight is foolish!” exclaimed Mariko. “Someone will die.”

“And you fear it will be Logan?” he held his chin high, peering down at her.

“No,” she held her ground. “I fear it will be you,” Harada moved his hand as if was going to hit her, and she flinched, but he never brought it down on her, disappearing from the room.

_ The Warehouse _

“So that was her, huh?” whispered Rogue. “Mariko?”

Logan looked at her sideways. “You were listening in?”

“Who wouldn’t?” as she said that, Logan sliced through the metal as if it were melting butter. “This place is huge,” she said, looking around the spacious room.

“I got their scent,” Logan trudged through the hallways, peeking around the corners. “This way,” he led. 

Suddenly a canister rolled into the hallway, gas steadily emitting from it. “We got trouble,” Rogue warned before dropping like a stone. Logan choked on the gas, falling to his knees as the room filled with more of the ninjas that had most likely taken some of the students.

“Very honorable of you,” Logan said to Harada as he entered the room, sword drawn. “Fighting an unconscious opponent.”

Harada just growled, preparing to bring his sword down, until an elderly voice spoke up. “He is right. There is no honor in fighting a sedated opponent. You will fight when he awakes again. It will be a battle between warriors.”

“See you then,” Logan spat out before his world went black.

**Commercial Break**

_ Separate Storage Room _

All of the students looked up as the door opened, one of ninja people walking in carrying a limp form in their arms.

“Rogue!” Remy shouted, trying again to pull away from his bonds with no success. 

They tied up her unconscious form a few feet from the others on her own post. “Rogue?” Kitty asked again, with no response. 

“Well, at least if she’s here, then Logan probably is,” Jubilee offered. “There’s that.”

“Well, if Logan’s with her, then where is he? Clearly their great rescue plan had a few faults,” Bobby snorted. 

_ Ally Behind the Warehouse _

Logan steadily rose to his feet, looking around the dark street. He couldn’t see anyone, not at first. But listening, he could hear ever so softly, the rippling of fabric, steady breathing. 

They were above him.

“Stop being cowards,” he called out into the night. “Fight me like a man. I know the rules, no powers,” there was a beat of silence, and then Harada leaped down, landing ten feet from Logan.

“Logan,” he looked him over. “The Wolverine. Here we are again. This time, Mariko cannot save you.”

“I won last time,” Logan said. “What makes you think that this time you’ll win?” 

“I am stronger than you. I have trained in the ways of the strongest master,” he slid sword across to Logan, then drew his own. “This time, I do not need powers.”

_ Separate Storage Room _

Rogue woke up, her head foggy. “What-where am ah?” she muttered, pulling herself up and finding her hands and feet tightly bound to a metal pole.

“ _ Chère _ ,” Remy smiled. “Glad to see your awake.”

“Remy!” she exclaimed, stretching over towards him. “Ah guess that the ninjas had more of that knock-out stuff.”

“Welcome to the party,” Jubilee said. 

“Where’s Logan?” asked Bobby.

“Ah don’ know,” Rogue shrugged. “He’s probably fightin’ Harada right now. That’s why they knocked us out.” 

“Who’s Harada?” asked Kitty. 

“According to Logan, a few years ago he fought ’im for a woman named Mariko. Harada lost, but Mariko chose him anyway so Logan left Japan. He kidnapped you guys so he would fight him. He wants to be the head of some crime organization,” Rogue explained. 

“Fun,” Jubilee sighed. 

“Where’s Jean and all the other teachers?” asked Rogue, peering down the aisle at all the others, only seeing Jubilee, Kitty, Piotr, Bobby, and Remy. 

“I think that they are in a different room,” Piotr suggested. “Probably unconscious.”

“That was probably a good idea on their part,” Bobby reasoned. “Since, you know, they have the Professor, who could get us out of here in five seconds flat.”

“Ah think that ah can get out of these ropes,” Rogue yanked her hands outwards, the rope ripping.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Kitty interrupted. “They have sharp ninja stars and good aim.”

“Well if Piotr is all metalled up when he breaks free, it doesn’t matter if they have ninja stars. They couldn’t hit him,” Bobby reasoned, his voice lower. 

“Ah can break some out, too,” Rogue offered. “If you guys can distract them while we break it.”

“Hand dis one some of the broken rope,” Remy whispered to Rogue, who nudged it over. “Get ready,  _ chère. _ ”

“Ah am,” she promised as Remy charged the piece of rope as much as he could, picking it up with his mouth and throwing it up towards the guards. The explosion was massive, successfully distracting them. 

Rogue quickly ripped through her rope, then ripped Remy free, too. He quickly began throwing more explosions up as Piotr metalled up and tore Kitty free. Within seconds everyone was free, running as quickly as possible towards the door. Kitty phased through a knife, and Jubilee pulled out the handle of the door.

As it swung open, ten more ninjas greeted them, surrounding them, weapons drawn and masks covering the majority of their faces.

“Well…” Remy looked at their captors. “Dis ain’t good.”

_ Ally Behind the Warehouse _

Harada brought the sword down with vicious grace, moving almost quicker than Logan could see. Logan brought up his sword as fast as he could, dodging and climbing away, avoiding his attacks.

“You have not trained, Logan,” Harada smiled cruelly. “You are just as inexperienced as I remember, if not more.”

Logan growled, swinging his sword to block an attack towards his face. Their swords held each other in place for a few moments before Logan gained the advantage. Pushing him back, Logan grabbed the blade of his own sword, pushing him back against the wall and holding him there. “We don’t have to do this,” Logan told him. “We don’t have to fight.”

“Did Mariko tell you that, huh? Not to fight me,” Harada spit in Logan’s face, pushing him away and swinging his sword wildly. 

Logan pared with Harada, not answering at first. “You won the girl and the fight. You don’t have to kill me.”

“She does not love me!” Harada shouted. “She just did not want you to die,” a deranged smile spread across his face. “I suppose that it only fair. I do not love her. I never did. I just fought for her so you could not have her.”

“You are an ass,” Logan decided, fighting as strong as he could. “You could never beat me, anyway.”

“Agh!” Harada’s face turned beet red, and he swung even wilder than before, his sword becoming super charged. He was about to hit Logan when a knife soared through the air with excellent marksmanship, going through Harada’s sleeve and pinning him against the wall.

“Enough!” shouted the elderly man. “You know of the rules, Harada. No powers allowed. You are hereby banned from the clan. Your return will be greeted with death.”

Mariko stepped out from the shadows, her face veiled as she looked down. “Come on, Harada. They have been gracious enough to arrange for a plane to take us out of the state and back home.”

“Mariko,” Logan walked over to the woman. “You don’t have to stay with him. You know that he doesn’t love you.”

“I made an oath to him. He is my husband, and I will honor that oath,” she contradicted. “Do you know why I chose him instead of you that day? It was to protect you, and to protect me. If I had chosen you, he would’ve killed us, and my family name would’ve lost its honor. Marrying him was the only decision I could’ve made.”

“Will we ever see each other again?” Logan asked.

“I cannot see the future. Perhaps, one day, our paths will cross again,” she turned to follow her husband. “Goodbye, Logan-san.”

**Commercial Break**

_ Separate Storage Room _

Rogue flew towards the first ninja, throwing him to the wall like he was a rag doll. Piotr punched them backwards, knocking them out. Their skills were incredibly superior to the X-Men, their weapons forcing them to be only on the defense. Rogue pulled off her glove, wrapping her hand across the face of one of them. “Guess who just learned martial arts?” she smiled, pulling a sword from one of them and moving it quicker than the eye could see. She cut through them, knocking them all out when she got close enough to touch them.

All of a sudden, she darted across the room faster than she’d ever flown before, swinging her blade to block a knife that was aimed for the back of Remy’s neck. “Thanks,  _ chère. _ ”

“You can thank me another time, Swamp Rat,” she promised, fighting off more attackers.

“Oh, I will,” he promised, winking at her. 

Suddenly one of the soldiers barked out an order, and they all stopped fighting. “You are free to go,” one announced. 

They exchanged glances with each other, hesitantly walking towards the door. Logan greeted them, bruised and battered, but still in one piece. He was quickly engulfed in a hug from Rogue, who was careful to place her hands on the parts of his clothes that weren’t ripped. “Didja win?” she asked.

“He was disqualified,” a faint smile graced his lips. “He was a cheater.”

“And…” Rogue wasn’t sure if she could ask him or not. “Mariko?”

“She left with her husband,” was all Logan said on that topic. “Let’s go, they told me where the others are.”

“Oh my God!” Kitty said suddenly. “If all of the teachers and older students are here, that means that the only old students there to take care of the kids are…”

“Regina and Matt!” Jubilee burst into laughter. “Oh my God, we have to get back there before they kill all of the students!”

“Don’t forget about Dan, he’s there too,” pointed out Bobby.

“So his health is on the line, too!” Jubilee giggled. 

“Alright, stop laughing. Let’s go,” Logan smirked, leading the kids out of the storage room.

_ The Mansion _

“We’re back!” Jean exclaimed as they walked through the door, tired but alive nonetheless. She was greeted with a large amount of shattered glass, screaming kids laughing and running around the Mansion living room, and a very very angry Regina and Matt, both covered in food stains.

“What the Hell was that?!” Regina shouted. “You all just disappeared, leaving us to deal with all of these monstrosities who don’t listen to anything!”

“We better be getting paid for this if you expect us to be able to do this!” Matt added in, his eyes narrowed. 

“Dear Goddess,” Storm looked around the room. “I think we have some cleaning to do. Afterwards, we can talk about payment.”

Regina crossed her arms, steaming, and threw a broom at Matt. “C’mon. This Mansion looks like Hell.”

**End Credits**

Promo for Next Episode ‘Sinister’:

When an enemy steps out from the shadows, Jean and Scott are kidnapped in order to create the perfect mutant


	19. Sinister

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Promo for this Episode:  
> When a new enemy steps out from the shadows, Jean and Scott are kidnapped in order to create the perfect mutant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Wow, time flies! I cannot believe how close we are to the season finale. Pretty sure there will be a season two, so comment below what you would like to see! Villains, storylines, you name it!  
> Also, who else has binge watched season two of Daredevil? It was amazing! And that cliffhanger!

 

**Season One, Episode Nineteen**

**Sinister**

_ Xavier’s Institute for Gifted Youngsters _

_ Upper Levels _

“Why are you avoiding me, cajun?” Rogue cornered Remy as he left Ororo’s classroom. 

He put on his regular flirtatious smile. “Whatever gave you that idea,  _ chère? _ ” 

“Because ever since the other day you keep doin’ that!” Rogue exclaimed. “You avoid my questions and act shady, and then flirt and smile like it’s alright!”

“It ain’t my fault dat you’re seein’ things dat aren’t dere, makin’ excuses to get into dis one’s head,” he wagged his fingers, and Rogue took in a sharp breath of anger.

“Now we’re back to this? You think that ah wan’ all of your secrets in mah head? Tell me cajun, what’s so horrible that you have to get all rude and defensive just at the thought of someone knowin’?” Rogue asked.

“I’ve just had a lot of baggage, and seein’ you deal with Siren’s don’ make me want to give you more! Jus’ because I ain’t eager to give you my private thoughts don’ mean I’ve don’ something horrible!” he replied, his voice rising to match Rogue’s. While most of the class had been gone by the time that they started arguing, the younger students who were walking past them to get into Ororo’s classroom shot them sideways glances, whispering to each other. 

“Ah can deal with all the shit that Siren has! That’s what ah have to do my entire life! Don’ touch anyone, ’cus when ah do I either kill them or live with their crap for the rest of my life!” Rogue shouted.

“It always gets back to this!” Remy walked towards her closing the space. 

“Back to what?” Rogue challenged. 

“Back to you bein’ afraid to let people get close to you,” Rogue opened her mouth to speak, but Remy kept talking. “I don’ mean physically, I know how dat works and it ain’t your fault. But you don’ let people know you. Get close to you,” Rogue stared up at him as he finished his sentence. “You don’ let people love you,  _ chère _ .”

Rogue’s breath hitched, and she held the silence for a few moments before turning away, her voice hoarse. “There’s just something in Siren’s memories eatin’ at me. Ah’m afraid that somethin’s comin’ for us,” she turned to look at him. “Something...Sinister.”

_ Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons _

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young) 

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

Mackenzie Foy*

Jason Isaacs  _ as  _ Mr. Sinister

_ E. G. Nick’s Restaurant _

_ Terrance Seats _

“I can’t remember the last time when we were alone together, just in peace and quiet,” Jean sighed, sipping her wine happily.

“It certainly is nice to have some time to ourselves for once,” agreed Scott. “Rather than saving the world again.”

“Do you think that one day we’ll ever be done? Saving the world?” Jean asked.

“What do you mean?” Scott set his glass down, leaning forward.

“I mean...this is all we do, everyday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. We do so much good. But sometimes I just wonder if one day it will get to the point where we’re done, and we can settle down, take a break,” Jean explained.

Scott thought about that for a moment chuckling. “You know, I have absolutely no idea.”

“There are other superheroes out there in the world,” Jean thought aloud. “But there’s just so many villains, and there’s enemies who are just against them and ones who are just against us. How could those other superheroes properly face a mutant problem calmly? We need to fight our own fights for rights.”

“You are right about that,” Scott took a deep breath before continuing. “I don’t know much about that, but I do know one thing-” he paused bending down to his knee and pulling out a ring. “I have loved you since the moment I saw you. We have been through so much together, and goodness knows that we will be through so much more, and I want to spend every second of this crazy life with you. So I’m asking you, Jean Grey, will you marry me?”

Jean’s throat caught, tears welling up in her eyes as she nodded. “It would be my pleasure to spend the rest of my life with you, Scott.”

There was a smattering of applause as he slid the ring on her finger, then pulled her in for a kiss, wrapping their arms around each other. 

Jean held Scott’s hand tightly as they exited the restaurant later that night, smiling brightly as her ring flickered in the light. “This was the best night of my entire life, Scott Summers,” she whispered into his ear, kissing him on the cheek.

“Mine too, soon to be Mrs. Summers,” he kissed her back. A wave of nausea caused them to stumble apart, clutching their heads.

The world tilted, and a needle was plunged into each of their necks, causing their world to go black.

**Commercial Break**

_ The Mansion _

_ Kitchen _

“Where’s Ms. Grey?” asked Jubilee. “And Mr. Summers?”

Ororo smiled knowingly into her coffee. “I suspect that after last night’s dinner, they wanted some...ahem, alone time.”

Jubilee and Kurt exchanged glances. “What was so special about last night’s dinner?”

“Hey,  _ chère _ ,” Remy winked at Rogue. “Want some alone time?”

“That wasn’t even subtle, swamp rat,” Rogue groaned, chugging her coffee. 

“Subtle is boring,” he decided.

“So what did they do last night?” Jubilee repeated.

“About a week ago,” the Professor smiled. “Scott approached me, asking for Jean’s hand in marriage.”

“Oh my God!” Kitty squealed. “That’s amazing! Can we go to the wedding? What about decorations? Can we help decorate it?”

Ororo laughed. “I think that you need to wait until Jean and Scott come back and ask them those questions yourself.”

“We’re going to have to get dresses!” Jubilee realized, a smile growing.

“Yay…” Regina said sarcastically, a small smile on her face. 

“Don’t be such a downer, Regina, it’ll be fun!” Jubilee assured her. 

_ Underground Laboratory _

_ Queens, New York _

Jean’s eyes fluttered open, and she slowly raised her head, looking from side to side. She tried to raise her hands, but she found them held down by metal bars. To the left of her was Scott, his eyes covered with cloth. “Scott?” she whispered, and when he didn’t answer, she raised her voice. “Scott! Can you hear me?”

Scott tilted his head towards Jean. “Jean? Jean, are you alright?” 

“I’m fine. What about you?” she lowered her voice again. “Do you know where we are?”

“No. I didn’t get a good look at our attacker before they knocked us unconscious,” Scott replied. 

“They must’ve been a mutant,” Jean reasoned. “I felt like the world was spinning before they knocked us out. That’s how they got the jump on us.”

“I think-” Scott started, but then he stopped suddenly as footsteps echoed in the room. 

“Both Summers and Grey are awake,” the man spoke into a tape recorder. “Serum lasted for roughly twelve hours, as was expected. Full tests have been run, all biological data is at my dispense.”

Jean’s eyes followed the unusually pale man. “What do you want with us?” Jean demanded.

“Note that Grey’s telekinetic powers were damped with Serum 136D. Blood samples acquired both with and without it,” he set the recorder down, looking at an array of tools laid out on a desk. “Miss Grey,” his voice was soft, velvety. “Can you tell me if you are currently experiencing any nausea?”

“Who the Hell are you?” she spat out. 

The man sighed. “You can call me Mr. Sinister. It’s what most people who...disagree with me do. They find it very catchy.”

“What do you want with us, Sinister?” Jean asked, attempting to raise her head.

“What I want,” he spoke slowly as if he were trying to talk to a five year old. “Is to find out if you are currently feeling any signs of nausea.”

Jean turned her head to the side, not meeting his gaze. He leaned in closer to her, until he was an inch away. 

“Leave her alone!” Scott shouted.

Sinister sighed dramatically, then stood up straight again. “I would like to precure some bone samples. This may hurt a bit.”

Within seconds her screams filled the room.

_ The Danger Room _

“On your left, Kitty!” Rogue warned, and Kitty barely phased in time to avoid being struck down by the sword of one of the attackers.

“Thanks, Roguey,” Kitty flashed a smile at her.

Rogue flew above one of the attackers, ripping the sword out of their hands and bending it like putty before throwing it back at them, knocking them unconscious. “Who fights with swords these days, anyway?”

“Crazy simulations hell bent on killing us,” Jubilee suggested.

“But aside from that?” Rogue smirked.

“Split up, attack them from the edges, force them to band together!” Bobby ordered, blasting ice and creating a wall around them. 

“So I was thinking,” Kitty said as she roundhouse kicked an attacker into the ground. “For the dresses, what do you think about strapless? I mean, I was debating because it looks amazing, but to dance in it would be very annoying. I’d have to keep pulling it up and-”

“Less chatter, more working!” Logan’s voice crackled over the loudspeaker.

“Ah think you would look amazin’ in a strapless dress,” Rogue decided.

“Kitty,” Regina interrupted. “You are going to be dancing like there’s no tomorrow at the wedding. I would highly suggest not getting a strapless dress.”

“Get back to work or you’re all on dish duty,” Logan threatened again.

“Perhaps you are being a bit hard on them?” Ororo suggested calmly. 

“They won’t be discussing dresses if someone’s really trying to kill them!” Logan reminded her.

“They’re just excited, that’s all. They are teenagers, after all-” Ororo placated.

“Don’t reminded me,” he groaned.

“They’re going to get excited over something as big as a wedding,” she finished.

Logan opened his mouth to continue, but was interrupted by the Professor’s voice cutting into their heads. “Logan, Ororo, please shut down the session. Neither Jean nor Scott have returned. I contacted the hotel that they had reservations at, and they never checked in. I fear that something has happened to them.”

“You got it, Chuck,” Logan nodded, then pressed a button, turning off the attackers and machinery. “Everyone report to the Strategy Room. We have a...situation.”

“What do you think’s going on?” asked Dan. 

“Ah dunno,” responded Rogue as she pulled Remy up to his feet with a little bit more force than she intended, causing him to leap off the ground a little bit. 

“Careful,  _ chère,  _ or you’ll rip the bones outta dis one,” Remy smiled, shaking himself off.

“Sorry,” she apologized as they joined the others, leaving the Danger Room.

_ In the Strategy Room _

“Who do you think took them?” Kitty asked. 

“I do not know,” the Professor sighed. “Both Jean and Scott are very powerful mutants. It makes sense that someone would want to take them.”

“Do you think that it’s the Morlocks again?” asked Jubilee. “They’re the ones who took them ages again.”

“I don’t think so,” Regina shook her head. “I, um, well I’ve been keeping in contact with the surviving Morlocks, and they’re too busy trying to rebuild, let alone kidnap someone.”

“You’re still in contact with da Morlocks,  _ petite?”  _ Remy asked, flipping cards underneath of the table somewhat nervously. 

“Yeah...well, now and then I talk to Callisto, see how things are going. Send them care packages and stuff,” Regina trailed off. “I dunno, I just thought that I would do it for Rin. Since she’s not here...and stuff.”

“Ah,” Remy nodded, ignoring the curious glances that Rogue was shooting him. 

“I will look on Cerebro,” the Professor said. “Until then, all of you, go get dressed and ready.”

**Commercial Break**

_ Underground Laboratory _

_ Queens, New York _

“Scott?” Jean asked, her voice hoarse. She pressed herself against the metal bars, trying to see him.

“Jean? Are you alright?” his voice called back out to her. Jean reached her hand out through the bar, trying to reach for a weapon. “I can’t see, my eyes are still blindfolded.”

“It’s going to be okay,” she assured, more to herself than him. “I’m sure that the Professor is already on his way to help us.”

“Hopefully. Have your powers returned yet?” Scott asked. 

Jean closed her eyes, focusing. Normally she could feel it, like a thousand little hands reaching out from her. Now...it was like someone had handcuffed them down. “No. Whatever he gave to me is still keeping my powers from working, and it hurts like hell,” Jean winced, rubbing her head. “Could you get your blindfold off?” 

She could hear rustling, and slow movement, but no vicious blast to show that the blindfold had been removed. “No. It’s like it’s duct taped to me. Can you see anything out there that can help us get out? Or at least let us know who this Sinister fellow is?”

Jean looked around at the laboratory. “There’s no windows, and it feels kind of damp. I can guess that we’re underground,” she saw some samples on the desk beside theirs, and tools that could possibly be used as a weapon, but they were too far away to be of any use. “Nothing we can use right now. It’s all out of reach.”

“Well then I guess that we will just have to wait,” Scott sighed, leaning against the cell wall.

_ On the Blackbird _

The ride was quiet and angsty, full of biting fingernails and hushed whispers. Ororo tried to soothe everyone, telling them that it would be okay. 

“You guys don’t need to worry,” the Professor spoke up at last. “I know exactly where they are. I’m sure they’ll be okay.”

“I’m sure that if they were going to kill them, we would’ve just found their bodies. So they probably want to experiment on them,” Matt offered helpfully, only to be met with a series of glares. “Sorry for letting you guys know that they probably aren’t dead,” grumbled Matt. 

“He has a point,” Bobby agreed. “Even if that was a really crappy way of phrasing it.”

“This is it,” the Professor pointed down. “Ororo, if you will please land here.”

Once they landed, the Professor lead them to a trapdoor buried underneath of scrap metal. “Allow me,” Rogue said, marching over and lifting the metal up with her pinky finger and throwing it overhead.

“Aw, now you’re just showing off, River Rat,” Remy smiled. 

“And you don’t, Swamp Rat?” she shot back. 

“Chuck, can you reach them? Let them know that we’re coming?” asked Logan.

“I can feel their minds...they’re in cells, room 313. Be careful,” the Professor added. “I can sense another mind down there. Something’s...off about it. This will be dangerous.”

“You need to stay up here and be ready to fly the Blackbird at a moment’s notice,” Ororo instructed to the Professor. “I don’t think that there’s a way to get you safely down there.”

“I understand,” he said. “Contact me, should there be any unexpected trouble.”

“Of course,” Logan gruffly nodded, ripping open the trapdoor. “C’mon, let’s go.”

The halls were damp and dark, but clean all the same. “No one down this hallway,” Logan announced after a moment’s decision. 

“This is so creepy,” Kitty shivered.

“Check the room numbers,” Bobby ordered. “He said it was room 313.”

“Look at this symbol,” Jubilee pointed to a small red diamond engraved in the wall. 

Remy turned to look at it, then paled. “Lemme see,” Rogue moved past him, looking at the symbol. “This looks familiar,” her voice trailed off. She could see through Siren’s memories that night again, the bloodshed and death. And that symbol was there, too. On the weapons that they had brought, it was imprinted on the side. 

Rogue felt a hand tugging her away from the symbol and she flinched, not realizing that it was Remy who had come up and stood next to her. “Come on,  _ chère,  _ we gotta look at the rooms. We ain’t got much time.”

“Ah-ah know that symbol,” Rogue murmured as Remy led her towards the others. “Reese-Siren, she saw it. On the weapons. Whoever is here, they-”

“Dat ain’t our problem right now,” Remy interrupted, squeezing her hand tight. “We gotta focus on gettin’ Jean and Scott outta here.”

“Here’s the room!” Dan exclaimed, looking through the foggy window into a lab. “I think that I can see them inside.”

Regina pushed past him, shaking the doorknob. “It’s locked.  _ Dame un momento,  _ I can break through it-” she pressed her palm against the glass, which instantaneously shattered inwards. She stuck her hand through the gaping hole, twisting the look and opening the door. 

“Logan! Ororo!” exclaimed Jean as she saw them come in. She stood up, holding the bars. 

“Do you hear that?” Regina asked, turning and listening down the hall at the sound of shuffling. 

“Hear what?” asked Matt.

“Someone else is raiding this place,” Regina muttered, exiting the room and following the noise, Matt following behind.

“The man who took us, he’s been taking samples from us,” Jean explained. “Lots of blood, skin, and some bone samples. He even managed to subdue my powers, with some sort of serum. But it hurt like hell,” she added hastily, looking at the expression on Rogue’s face.

“Do you know who it is?” asked Logan as he extended his claws and ripped open the lock. 

“He told us to call him ‘Sinister’, because that’s what people who didn’t like him called him,” Jean answered.

Remy’s expression darkened greatly, and a look of fear crossed his face. He turned so he wasn’t facing the others, walking to look at some of the supplies. Rogue walked over, standing besides him. “See something of interest?” she asked lightly. 

“ _ Non _ , just curious. Dis-dis Sinister dude, he had a lot of scientific interest…” he trailed off as he looked at the samples. 

Lebeau, Remy. Darkholme, Anna Marie.

Among other names. 

“How the hell…” Rogue picked up her blood sample. “Who-why do they have our blood samples?”

“Dis ain’t good,” Remy swore under his breath.

_ Down the hall _

_ Room 316 _

_ Radioactive by Imagine Dragons plays until End Credits _

“Are you sure that you heard something?” Matt asked, irritably following behind Regina.

“Shh…” she waved at him to shut up, stopping outside the door, listening.

The door swung open, revealing an empty room, the filing cabinets emptied. “I told you, it’s empty,” Matt sighed.

There was a movement in the corner of Regina’s eye, and she tilted her head slightly. “No, it’s not.”

She whipped around faster than Matt would’ve thought possible, sending out a high pitched noise that shook the walls, causing something to fall out of the shadows.

Someone.

“Caterina,” Matt folded his arms.

“Matt,” she winked at him before turning. “And Regina. Nice little talent you’ve developed there.”

“What are you doing here?” asked Matt, bored. “Did Magneto send you?”

“Magneto is all talk and no do. He’s dealing with something else, whatever that means, and I have my own little research project,” she shrugged, standing up and pulling out a gun, twirling it around. “I take it that you’re here because of carrot top and four eyes?”

“Give me one reason I shouldn’t turn you into the Professor,” Regina spoke fiercely. “Or, better yet, kill you? You did try to kill us, after all.”

“I mean,” Caterina shrugged comedically. “You could try. Don’t know how far you’d get with that. But go ahead. Good luck.”

Regina stared at her for a moment, and then snorted. “I like you. I mean, I hate you, and the day that you die I will personally thank your killer. But you are very entertaining.”

“And you are very...angry,” Caterina watched her, then aimed her gun. “I think that I don’t want you to tell anyone that you saw me.”

“Caterina-” Matt started, but a gun was already aimed at him with her other hand.

“You even think about taking away my senses and I’ll shoot this straight through your skull,” she smiled.

_ Room 313 _

“Destroy the sample,” Remy said in a low, worried voice.

“But then he’ll know-” Rogue started.

“He’ll already know when two of his prisoners are gone,  _ chère,  _ just destroy the damn samples,” he took his own, smashing it on the ground and grinding it beneath his feet.

Rogue did the same, casting a curious glance at Remy. “There’s more, there’s notes-” she pulled over a piece of paper. “Blood sample of AM workin’ as expected. Blood cells adapt quickly. More testing will insure after settling,” Rogue shook her head. “Who’s this Sinister person? How does he know my real name?”

“Think, who did you give blood samples to?” asked Remy.

“The Jemma girl. Do you think that she-” Rogue questioned.

“Don’ think that she did dat. Whoever dis is, dey took the samples,” Remy reasoned. 

“Well now we-” Rogue was interrupted by all of the glass in the room shattering, along with several gunshots. “That ain’t good.”

“Run,” Logan ordered.

They darted down the hall, running as fast as they could towards the exit. “Where are Regina and Matt?” shouted Jubilee.

“Let’s check the rooms-” Rogue suggested, running into the nearest room, and stopping with a gasp. 

The room was filled with jars, like you’d expect to see in a cellar, except instead of being filled with food, they were filled with organs. Along the edges of the walls were tanks, filled with floating people and greenish water. Most of them Rogue didn’t recognize, but a few of them she did. The Morlocks who had been killing people. All except for the one who could see the future. They clearly hadn’t all been put in there at the same time, and at the center, Siren floated in her own take, her neck scarred and eyelids translucent. 

Remy darted in the room behind her, and took in the sight. “ _ Chère,  _ we have to go,” he pulled at her but she didn’t budge. “ _ Chère! _ ” he said again, louder, and Rogue turned, her eyes wet, and raced out of there with him.

“I found Regina!” Kitty announced. “And Matt,” Regina and Kitty were holding Matt up by the shoulders, supporting him as he limped, his leg bleeding. 

“They have the Morlocks who were killin’ people in there,” Rogue managed to choke out. “Preserved, like-ah dunno, it’s sick.”

“Who shot him?” asked Logan, picking up Matt like he weighed nothing. 

“Caterina,” he muttered angrily. “She was here getting files. Said it was for a little research project of her own.”

“Caterina? Shadow? The girl who locked us in the Danger Room and tried to kill us?” Logan repeated. 

“That’s the one,” confirmed Matt.

“Is she still here?” asked Jean, who was guiding a still blindfolded Scott. 

“No, she disappeared into the wall when Regina did whatever she did and caused a distraction,” Matt shot a glance to Regina as Rogue ripped open the trapdoor.

“Shouldn’t we see someone trying to stop us?” Jubilee asked as they ran as fast as they could to the Blackbird.

“You know what they say, Juju,” Kitty panted as they sat down in the Blackbird, Logan slowly peeling away the pant leg from Matt. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

_ Deep Underground _

_ Room 515 _

“Sir,” a nervous scientist asked. “Are you sure that you don’t want us to stop them?”

Sinister looked over the computer screen to the other scientist. “Let them go. I have everything I need to start. Besides, you placed the tracker inside both Grey and Summers?” he confirmed.

“Yes, sir,” nodded the other.

“Then all we have to do is wait,” Sinister stood up, wiping his hands on a handkerchief in his pocket. “Let’s start the next phase of the plan. Package up the necessities. We’re going to transfer to our Alabama base.”

**End Credits**

Promo for Next Episode ‘The Prodigal Daughter Returns’:

When mutants in Alabama begin to go missing, Regina receives a call asking for help.


	20. The Prodigal Daughter Returns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Promo for this Episode:  
> When mutants in Alabama begin to go missing, Regina receives a call asking for help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:  
> Now that the Spring/Easter Break is over, the next chapter is here! Just three episodes left in the season! As usual, this story's format was inspired by the fantastic 'ARogueGambit7's Mutant High: Revolutionary

**Season One, Episode Twenty**

**The Prodigal Daughter Returns**

_Regina’s Room_

“Just crack it,” Regina muttered to herself. “Don’t shatter. Exercise...control…” a small crack appeared on the cup, spidering around but not shattering it. Regina let out a sigh of relief-

And then the cup exploded outwards. Regina instinctively threw up her hands for defense, most of the cuts landing on her arms. Groaning in exasperation, she pulled out a small broom that she’d learned to keep in her room, brushing all of the glass into the garbage. She sat down in her bed, letting the pillows surround her.

There was a series of bangs on her door, along with shouts. “Regina I know you’re in there,” it was Matt. “Open up.”

“Ah, Matt,” she swung the door open. “How’s my second least favorite person in the world?”

“Wet and angry,” he growled, holding a broken glass cup. “I was walking outside your room and this exploded on me.”

“Well then best clean up the mess,” Regina shrugged, going to shut the door, but Matt stuck his foot in the way.

“I’d prefer to be able to use something glass without the fear of it exploding on me,” he thrust the glass at her.

“Fascinating,” she retorted as the phone began to ring. “I’d much rather listen to whatever telemarketer is on the other end of that than your whining. So I’m gonna get this,” she picked up the phone, sliding to answer it. “Hello?”

“Regina?” the voice sounded eerily familiar. “I need your help with something.”

Regina dropped the glass, which shattered on impact. “Rin?”

_Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons_

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young)

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

Mackenzie Foy*

Paige Turco*

Jason Isaacs _as_ Sinister

With Special Guest Star

Danielle Campbelle _as_ Aqua

_Regina’s Room_

“What did she say?” Matt demanded as Regina darted around her room, filling her bag with clothes. She ignored him, darting into her bathroom to grab her toothbrush. “Regina! What did she say?”

“Buzz off, I have more important things to deal with,” Regina zipped her bag shut, tucking her phone into her pocket.

“I take it that you’re going to Alabama?” Matt stood in the middle of the doorway, blocking her.

“Oh good, you can eavesdrop. Move out of my way,” Regina shoved past him.

“Well you’re not going alone,” Matt decided, following behind Regina.

“Ooh!” Jubilee backtracked, following behind Matt and Regina. “Not going where alone?”

“Alabama,” Matt grumbled. “She got a call from Rin.”

“Rin? As in our Rin?” Jubilee did a double check, and Matt nodded. “Bobby! Kitty!” she called as they walked past the rec room.

“Yeah?” Kitty asked, she and Bobby joining the group with Rogue and Remy following close behind.

“We’re going to Alabama!” Jubilee squealed.

“Yay! Alabama!” Kitty smiled. “What’s in Alabama?”

“Rin! She called asking for our help with something,” Jubilee explained.

“You’ve talked to Rin?” Kitty asked Regina.

“Yes, I’ve talked to her,” Regina turned around to face the group. “She called me, and asked for my help. Not everyone’s, mine. I can maybe get away without the Professor noticing, but certainly not if you all go!”

“Regina, ah hate to be the one to break it to you, sugar, but the Professor’s a telepath. He’ll notice that you’re gone the second that we try to tell him otherwise,” Rogue explained. “And we’ll get in trouble anyway for lettin’ you. So go big or go home, right? We’ll all go.”

“Besides,” Jubilee added. “I’d like to see Rin, anyway.”

“Fine!” Regina groaned. “Fine. But you guys are all going to get in trouble with me, just so you’re clear on that.”

“Get in trouble for what?” Ororo asked, folding her arms and staring down at the group. “What are you guys planning to do this time?”

Regina sighed in defeat, while Matt stepped in front of her. “Well, Ms. Monroe, we got a call asking for help from Rin in Alabama.”

“Rin contacted you?” Ororo raised her eyebrow. “Well that’s certainly great news. Did she say what she needed help with?”

“Regina?” Matt turned to face the Hispanic girl, who grumbled a response.

“Missing Mutants,” Regina stared down at her feet, then looked up to Matt again.

“Why didn’t you just ask?” Ororo questioned. “The Professor certainly will let you guys go and help.”

Regina just shrugged, not meeting Ororo’s eyes and muttering something unintelligible in Spanish under her breath.

“So we can go?” Jubilee paraphrased.

“I will have to talk to the Professor,” Ororo said carefully. “But I do not see any reason why not, especially if Rin needs our help.”

“Yay!” Kitty clapped.

“Now why don’t the rest of you go pack while I talk to Charles?” she suggested.

The group slowly dispersed, leaving Matt and Regina standing alone in the middle of the hallway. He smiled cockily, patting her on the shoulder. “You’re welcome.”

Regina sighed, storming off to her own bedroom and leaving him there.

**Commercial Break**

_The Conair House_

“This is her address,” Regina pointed, and Ororo pulled over into the driveway.

“Nice house,” Bobby whistled.

The group van pulled over in front of the house, the students filing out of it. Regina stopped in front of the door, knocking hesitantly, taking measured breaths. The door opened a little bit, revealed a middle aged woman. “Hello?”

“Hello there, you must be Mrs. Conair,” Ororo stuck out her hand politely, which Mrs. Conair carefully shook. “My name is Ororo Monroe. I am a Professor at-”

Mrs. Conair immediately withdrew her hand. “You’re from that school, aren’t you? I told you guys to never contact us again, after what you did to my daughter-”

“Sorry that your daughter decided to be a halfway decent human being and fight for what she believes it,” Regina interrupted, scoffing.

“She was in the hospital on more than one occasion-”

“And you taking her back here did what exactly? You’re a coward,” Regina took a step forward, only to be pulled back by Ororo.

“Regina,” she warned sharply.

“Y’all need to get off of my lawn immediately or I’m calling the authorities,” her voice began to rise.

“M’am,” Rogue said as politely as possible. “We don’t want any trouble, we just-”

“If you don’t want any trouble you’ll leave now and never come back!” Mrs. Conair wagged her finger, taking a step back as if to close the door.

“Mom!” a voice exclaimed from inside. “I called them. Let them in.”

Mrs. Conair turned, shutting the door, her voice coming out muffled. “Princess, I told you-”

“I know what you told me, but I didn’ listen,” Rin replied from inside. “The police aren’t going to do anything, not when it involves mutants-”

“I want you to stay out of that stuff!” she insisted.

“I am a mutant, mother, whether you want to admit it or not,” Rin raised her voice slightly. “And I’m not going to sit back and do nothing!”

There was more whispered arguing which they couldn’t hear, and then the door slowly creaked open, revealing both Rin and her mother, who did not look very pleased. “Hey guys!” Rin smiled widely.

_The Mansion_

“The Mansion is very quiet,” Piotr noticed as he looked up from his essay around the empty room.

“Yeah,” Dan agreed, looking at the few younger students. “Where do you think everyone else is?”

“I do not know,” shrugged Piotr.

“They probably went to go save the world without us, again,” Dan sighed, turning back to his essay.

“Well…” Piotr paused, looking from his essay to Dan. “At least we do not fall behind on our school work.”

“Definitely,” Dan nodded sarcastically. “I mean, they get to save the world and fight bad guys, but at least we get to study Shakespeare!”

_The Conair House_

“So how have you guys been?” Rin asked after a moment of silence. “It’s been a long time-”

“Since we’ve been able to talk?” Regina shot a nasty glare towards Mrs. Conair. “Yeah, I know.”

“Regina,” Ororo said softly. “Rin, I’m fine, how have you been?” she asked politely.

“I’m good,” Rin nodded. “I started this club at school, it’s called ‘The Mutant Human Alliance Group’. There’s more mutants than I thought at my school, just most of them didn’t want to come out because they were afraid or their parents wouldn’t let them. They’re really nice and I’ve been helping them get in control…” Rin bit her lip. “That’s the problem. Four of the members of the Mutant Human Alliance have gone missing in the past month. They’re just disappearing, and the parents are worried and the police aren’t trying because they’re mutants. It’s a mess. That’s why I called you.”

“We should have a look at the school,” Ororo suggested.

“Yes!” Rin nodded excitedly. “Regina-I have some stuff in my room I want to get before we go, can you come with me?”

Regina nodded slowly, standing up and following Rin up the stairs. In her room, she silently watched as Rin gathered up her phone and notepad in a bag. “So…” Regina swallowed. “You could call me whenever you wanted?”

“No!” Rin turned, rushing towards Regina so she was only a few feet away. “No. This was a life or death emergency. That’s why I broke the rules. My parents will be so angry-but I needed your help.”

“But you could’ve broken the rules beforehand,” Regina reasoned. “I mean, you have a cell phone, it’s not like your parents are with you all hours of the day.”

Rin looked torn. “I’m sorry. I just-it was so complicated, you know? Everything and I only just-”

“You didn’t want to get in trouble,” her tone was flat. “I get it.”

“Regina…” Rin looked down.

“I get it completely. Clearly I misread all those months staying together-everything that we did and shared,” her voice was rising.

“Well look what happened last time I took a risk!” Rin’s voice rose too, matching Regina’s. “At your suggestion, and I almost died! Being safe is important! Being alive is important! I’m not going to throw myself out there again right after something like that!” she huffed. “And as I was going to say, I only just got my phone last week.”

“You know-” Regina’s voice dropped down a few octaves. “I was broke after you left-I thought that I had killed you for the longest time-”

“Well,” Rin sighed. “I’m right here.”

They stared at each other for a few moments, up until Regina uncomfortably cleared her throat. “We should probably get going. They’re all waiting for us.”

“Yeah…” Rin nodded, biting her lip. “Definitely.”

Downstairs the group sat awkwardly around the table, not speaking much aside from Rogue and Remy, who were murmuring to each other in low undertones. “Got everything you need?” Ororo asked.

“Yes, Ms. Monroe,” Rin nodded. “Mom, I think that you should stay here while we go to look around the school.”

“What? There’s no way that I am letting you go alone!” exclaimed her mom.

“Mom,” Rin paused, taking a deep breath in. “This is potentially dangerous. There may be a fight, and I don’t want you to get in the middle of it. It’s not like there won’t be an adult there. Ms. Monroe will be there, and I assure you that she’s perfectly capable.”

Mrs. Conair looked back and forth from Ororo to Rin, before nodding. “Alright! Fine. Go. Just be safe, alright? Call me if you’re going to be more than an hour.”

“Of course, Mom,” Rin gave her mother a kiss on the cheek as they all stood up. “Let’s go.”

They left out the door and disappeared into the van, leaving Mrs. Conair to stare after them as they disappeared down the street. After a brief second of watching, she turned around and walked back into the kitchen. Someone leaped from the shadows, pressing a knife to the woman’s neck. “Hello, Mrs. Conair. I need to ask you a few questions, and I hope for your sake that you answer,” a smile spread across their face. “But it would be so much more fun for me if you don’t.”

**Commercial Break**

_East High School_

“Ah,” Matt took a deep breath in as the doors to the school swung open. “The public education system. I can already smell the stifling hierarchy and horrible food.”

“It’s not that bad,” Rin grinned. “I mean the food is awful, but some of the teachers are alright.”

“People who became teachers are people who wanted a different job and failed epically,” Matt countered.

“C’mon, the classroom’s this way,” Rin lead the way to an empty but colorful classroom. Desks were pushed up against the side of the wall, making room for a large circular table. Posters decorated the wall, as well as several newspaper clippings. “This is where we had our meetings. We have a list of names of members in the club, as well as their locker numbers, so we can do surprise decorations whenever we suspect that the stress is getting to one of them.”

“Stress?” Rogue asked, flipping through one of the calendars.

“Joining this club, whether you’re mutant or human, makes people...notice you,” Rin trailed off. “Not always in a good way. I’m just trying to make sure that we can do good without anyone getting hurt.”

“That’s very kind of you, Rin,” Ororo smiled.

“Let’s split up, search the room?” Bobby suggested.

“It ain’t like the room’s that big,” Rogue reminded Bobby, who just scoffed in reply.

“Who were the ones who went missing?” Kitty asked as she looked over the list of names.

“Keeley Lazell, Paul Hall, Steven Brusie, and Maria Sanchez,” Rin listed. “They all went missing within the month, one each week. They’re just...disappearing. I was talking to the parents, and they all said that they just never came home from school. The bus drivers wore up and down that they dropped them off, but they never came home. Whoever took them, they had to know exactly when and where they would be getting off the bus. This wasn’t random.”

“What was the order that they went missing?” Kitty asked slowly.

“Steven, Paul, Keeley, and then Maria was a few days ago,” Rin answered.

“It’s not random,” Kitty looked up, holding the list. “They’re going down the list.”

“If they were going alphabetical they would’ve taken Rin already,” Regina pointed out. “Conair. She would’ve been second.”

“But it’s not alphabetical. That was just a coincidence. It’s going order that they signed in on this paper,” Kitty handed the paper to Ororo. “Rin signed in last.”

“Whoever we are dealing with...they have a copy of this list,” Rin realized.

“If they have the list, then they would be able to figure out their addresses, bus schedule, all of it,” Jubilee deducted. “It’s not just a coincidence that all the mutants they’re taking are in this group-they’re specifically taking mutants from this group.”

“Well then we have to-” Rin paused suddenly, holding a hand up. “Someone’s here.”

“It’s probably the janitor,” Bobby shrugged.

“If it was the janitor, you’d hear the squeaking of wheels as he pulled his cart with him. No squeaking. No janitor,” Rin silently moved towards the door, listening.

The second that the door opened, Rin already had their arm wrapped around their back, pinning them to the ground.

“For the love of God,” Matt groaned, looking at the small figure that Rin had pinned down. “Not you again. My leg still hurts from the bullet wound.”

Caterina laughed. “Stop whining. It was a flesh wound. You’re walking fine.”

“Who is this person?” Rin asked, looking up towards Matt. In the second that she looked away, Caterina flipped her over, throwing her against the wall.

“Rin. I don’t believe that we’ve had the pleasure of meeting personally,” Caterina pulled out a dagger. “Your mother is very nice, though. Very cooperative.”

“Stay the Hell away from my mother,” Rin growled in a very un-Rin like way.

“She’s alive,” Caterina reasoned. “A little bruised up, a little decayed, but alive nonetheless.”

“Why don’ you tell us what the Hell you want ’fore we’re forced to ask in a less friendly way?” Rogue suggested, stepping forward.

“I know all about all of you,” Caterina’s grin widened. “You know the saying ‘if the walls had ears’? Well, in your case, they do. And the walls heard some very interesting information. So why don’t you let me get what I came here for,” her gaze landed unsettlingly on Remy. “Before I’m forced to tell people things you’d rather stay in the dark.”

“What do you want?” Matt asked, taking a step towards her.

“I want the list of names,” she stated. “And it’s not like that’s exactly something private anymore.”

“What are you going to do with them?” Jubilee asked.

“None of your buisness, fireworks,” Caterina remarked.

“You said, back in the lab when we last saw you, that you weren’t doing this for Magneto. You said that this was your own little science project,” recalled Matt. “This is part of that, isn’t it? You know who took them. I’m willing to bet that you knew they’d be taken.”

“Matthew,” sighed Caterina. “If I knew all of that, then why would I want the list of names.”

“Okay, so you didn’t know exactly who would be taken,” he rephrased. “But you knew someone would. It’s not a coincidence that you’re here at the same time that we are...whoever took them is the same person who took Jean and Scott. The same person that you’ve been doing a ‘science project’ on.”

“Someone’s been binging Sherlock,” Caterina laughed. “Yes. Nathaniel Essex, that’s the person who took Jean and Scott. That’s the person who is taking these mutants now. Although you probably knew him as Sinister-it took a lot for me to find his real name,” another glance towards Remy, this time with a subtle wink.

“Nathaniel Essex?” Rin repeated. “He-he works with my dad. I’ve met him before.”

“Yeah, you talked to him just long enough for him to slip something in your drink. A power enhancer that went horribly wrong and almost wiped out the entire school,” Caterina laughed. “Including me. I don’t like your recklessness getting me almost killed.”

“How do you know all of this, Caterina?” Ororo spoke up at last. “Do not tell me that you are working with him.”

“Of course not,” Caterina replied. “I’ve just done my research. Eavesdropped, observed. Believe it or not Rin, unlike your mother, your father is very proud of what you’ve been doing. Proud enough to brag about it at work, I’d say.”

“So that’s how Essex knew that there were mutants here fresh for the taking,” Jubilee summed up.

“How about we make a deal?” Matt suggested.

“Matt, I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Ororo tried to step in between, but Matt just brushed past her.

“And what would that be? What do you have that I want?” Caterina snickered. “You’re hilarious, Matt. I even find you guys and your quest mildly entertaining. But what do you have that I don’t?”

“Numbers. We want to get those mutants who were taken. You want to get information on this Essex. I’m suggesting that we work together, get what we need, and then we never have to see each other again,” Matt described.

Caterina considered, then nodded. “Fine. I could use a human blockade. But don’t think for a second that I won’t kill you if you get in my way.”

“Glad that we understand each other,” Matt smiled, tilting his head.

“This is going to end horribly,” Rogue muttered under her breath to Remy, who nodded.

“Tell me about it, _chère,_ ” he replied, his fist clenched.

**Commercial Break**

_Orange Beach, Alabama_

“How did you even manage that?” Jubilee asked, bewildered, as Caterina pulled out a camera that was hidden beneath a street lamp.

“I’m resourceful. I knew that mutants had gone missing, I just didn’t know which ones. I needed the list to figure out which camera to take down,” she explained in a dry voice. “This would’ve captured the license plate number of whoever took them.”

“Well, don’t keep us waiting,” Matt said. “What’s the number?”

“NMNA25,” read Caterina. “Black Cadillac. No defining features.”

“There are a few places around here that can run the plate for us,” said Ororo.

“Then let’s be on our way,” Caterina hopped in shotgun of the van.

“Let’s,” grumbled Matt, sliding into the back seat.

_Outside the Registered Vehicle Department_

“What’s wrong, _chère_?” Remy asked, leaning up against the brick beside Rogue, who was lacing and unlacing her fingers from his.

“What aren’t you tellin’ me?” she asked at last.

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said after a moment's hesitation.

“Yes you do,” she stood up from the wall, facing him. “You know exactly what ah’m talking about, Remy Lebeau. And whatever you ain’t tellin’ me-that Shadow girl knows it.”

“I told you about me!” he stood up, too, facing her. “You wanted to know ’bout my past, and I told you! Now woman-you sayin’ I don’t tell you anything. _Laisse moi être!”_

“Ah ain’t stupid!” she shouted. “Ah know that you gave me the neutered version of your past-you need to tell me what’s goin’ on. You know him, don’ you? Nathaniel Essex? Sinister?”

“Why does it matter? I ain’t part of whatever he’s doing!” Remy clutched his hands together, pressing them to his chest.

“Then why won’ you tell me?” she asked, stepping towards him.

Remy was about to shout out a retort, but was interrupted by the others stepping out. “We’ve got a location,” Regina announced. “Let’s go, I don’t know how much longer we have.”

Rogue took a deep cleansing breath, then nodded. “Yeah. Sure, let’s go.”

_Underground_

“Paul,” Keeley reached through the bars of her cell, trying to touch the other boys hand. “Paul, please, can you hear me?”

“I’m afraid that your friend is very far under. He cannot hear you,” a pale man said, bending down to be at Keeley’s level. “Hopefully when he’s awake that talent of his will be more of use.”

“What did you do to him?” she croaked out.

“Well, before he was able to…” he glanced down at his clipboard. “Read emotions. If this trial is successful, afterwards he will be able to control emotions.”

“And…” she swallowed. “If it isn’t successful?”

“I’m afraid that there is only one other option. If it is not successful, he will not wake up,” Essex pulled out an empty syringe. “I am going to take a blood sample now. I assure you that I am going to make this as efficient as possible. Do you know your blood type?”

Keeley slowly shook her head. “Please let me go. I...I won’t tell anyone.”

He sucked in a breath between his teeth. “I am afraid that I can’t do that. I will have to take a sample myself to properly accommodate your enhancer.”

“Please…” she cried. “Please, don’t-”

“Sir?” another scientist entered. “We have approaching intruders. Some of them are the same as before-”

“What about Lebeau? Is he with them?” Essex asked smoothly.

“Yes,” he nodded.

“Don’t stop them,” Nathaniel decided. “Let them think that they’re sneaking in. And prep another round of enhancer, I’ll have the blood type in a couple minutes.”

“No,” Keeley tried to pull away, but Essex gripped her wrist tightly. “Please, no-”

“Please hold still, it will be much easier on all of us that way,” he inserted the needle into her wrist, filling it up with her blood.

_Entrance to the Underground_

“This way,” Caterina lead. “Rogue?”

Rogue yanked open the trap door, throwing it across the street. “He really likes his underground labs.”

They lowered down, looking around the dark room. “Any of you concerned that the room’s empty?” Jubilee asked, looking around.

“I wouldn’t think too far into it,” Bobby shrugged. “We should find the others before Essex comes back.”

“Over here!” shouted Regina. “There’s a boy, unconscious.”

“That’s Steven,” Rin ran over to the cell. “Rogue, can you-”

“Of course, sugar,” Rogue bent the bars, pulling them apart. “Where are the others?”

“There’s a room over here,” Bobby opened the door. “More cells.”

“Let’s get them, and then we have to go,” Ororo followed him in. “Freeze the locks, I’ll help her, you can help her,” Ororo pointed to the girls in the cells.

“I believe this is where we part ways,” Caterina said, turning around from the filing cabinets, her arms filled with files. “Pleasure doing buisness with you.”

“We’ve got Maria and Keeley,” Ororo announced, supporting a limping girl.

“Where’s Paul?” asked Rin. “We have to get him too.”

The room shook, alarms blaring. “Intruder alert,” a mechanical voice rang.

“Child, we have to go,” Ororo touched Rin’s shoulder. “If he’s not down here, he’s too far gone.”

“But I can’t-I can’t leave him down here,” Rin blinked away tears.

“We have to go, sugar,” Rogue said gently. “We don’t know what’s goin’ on down here, and until we know more, we can’ hope to defeat him.”

Rin paused, but ran ahead with everyone else when Regina grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

**Commercial Break**

_Orange Beach, Alabama_

_Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift plays until End Credits_

“Three out of four isn’t bad,” Ororo smiled. “I must say, I am impressed with you guys. All of you.”

“Thank you, Miss Monroe,” Rin blushed, bowing her head.

“We should head back,” Bobby said after a moment of silence.

“Yeah,” Regina agreed, and then cleared her throat. “Yeah, definitely.”

“I’m gonna miss you, Rin,” Jubilee hugged her tight.

“Me too,” Kitty joined in on the hug.

“Well,” Rin pulled away, smiling. “I guess it’s good that you guys have missed me. Because I’m going to come back and join the X-Men. I’m going home with you guys.”

“What?” Regina did a double take. “You’re going to come live at the Mansion again?”

“Yeah. I’ve decided-after a while of thinking-that I can make my own decisions. My dad, he’s agreed to sign all the necessary paperwork, convince my mom. I want to be able to do good,” she explained.

“That’s-awesome,” Regina smiled.

“We can stop at your house and pick up your stuff,” Ororo said. “I’ll call the Professor and explain everything on the way.”

Everyone sat down in the car, Rogue pausing before she went in. “Remy? Are you coming?” she turned around, seeing the cajun walking into the shadows between the buildings. “Just a sec,” she said before chasing off after him. “Remy, what are you doing?”

“Go back to the car, _chère,”_ he muttered, not turning around.

“And what are you gonna do?” she asked, speaking up when he didn’t answer. “Well, Swamp Rat? You plannin’ on walking back to New York?”

“Maybe dis one ain’t plannin’ on goin’ back to New York,” he replied.

“So that’s it, huh?” Rogue yanked his shoulder, spinning him around angrily. “One little fight and you’re just gonna up and leave?”

“Remy don’ have to do anythin’ he don’ wanna do,” he said grudgingly.

“So we’re back to this. Third person again. You’re shuttin’ me out. You go on and on ’bout me not lettin’ you close, and now you’re doin’ this?” she folded her arms.

“Maybe I don’ want all of you sneakin’ to my past,” he growled. “Or am I not allowed to deal with things myself.”

“Remy-” she collected herself, taking a breath. “If there’s somethin’ that you’re runnin’ from, somethin’ that is chasin’ ya, all you have to do is ask. Ah’d help you in a heartbeat.”

Any anger that he had deflated like a balloon. “Jus’ go back to da car, _chère._ ”

“Ah ain’t leavin’ without you,” she said stubbornly.

“Remy jus’ need to take care of a few things,” he put his hands on her upper arms. “I’ll come back in a little while.”

“Will you?” she questioned softly, pulling away and turning back to the car. “Because ah don’ know anymore.”

“Where’s Remy?” Kitty asked as Rogue got back in the car.

“Said he needed to take care of a few things,” she grumbled. “Don’ know when we’ll see him again.”

Ororo gently touched Rogue’s arm. “I’m sure that he’ll come back soon.”

“Maybe,” she sighed. “Maybe not.”

_Starbucks, Orange Beach, Alabama_

_Two Weeks Later_

“Here’s your coffee, no cream extra sugar,” the barista slid the cup over the counter. “And here’s your receipt.”

Remy looked down to see a number written down on it and smiled, winking at the barista before leaving. Outside, he leaned against a motorcycle that he had ‘borrowed’ for the time being, pulling out his phone and taking a large sip of his coffee before dialing a number.

The voicemail beeped almost instantly, listing off a number. “Hey, _chère,”_ he paused before continuing on with his message. “I know dat I haven’t called since we last saw each other, I just wanted to tell you dat I-I’m gonna come back. Dere ain’ anything left here in Alabama for me, and the past is just gonna have to stay dat way-” suddenly Remy stiffened, dropping the phone, which shattered against the pavement as a serum was injected into his bloodstream.

“Hello again, Gambit,” the smooth voice whispered into his ear. “Long time, no see.”

**End Credits**

Promo for Next Episode:

While Mr. Sinister's plan for the X-Men begins, trust will be testing as the X-Men are forced to make allies with enemies and rash decisions to protect the ones they love. All will be tested in the beginning of the two part finale.


	21. Burning Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This Episode's Promo:  
> While Mr. Sinister's plan on the X-Men begins, trust will be tested as the X-Men are forced to make allies with enemies and rash decisions to save the ones they love. All will be tested in the beginning of the two part season finale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hello! The beginning of the season finale is here! Comment suggestions for storylines you would like to see played out in the next season.

**Season One, Episode Twenty One:**

**Burning Secrets**

_ Gym, Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters _

Rogue hit the bag as repeatedly, trying to remember everything that Logan had taught her about keeping her guard up. She punched a rapid combo that he had taught them a few weeks ago, ending it with a vicious kick across the room.

Sighing, she went to pick it up, pressing the broken chain that held the bag up back together. “Stupid cajun,” she muttered to herself, hitting it rapidly again, harder and harder. She could feel her somewhat newfound strength running through her veins, pushing her further than she’d ever gone before. “Keep goin’, keep goin’,” she said through gritted teeth. She remembered what it was like before Carol, the weakness and inability to do anything. She remembered the Statue of Liberty, hanging out there, waiting to die, not being able to do anything about it. Never again.

The bag sailed across the room again, narrowly missing a window. Rogue smiled to herself as she picked it up. She didn’t need to break another window, Regina was doing that enough for all of them. True, but if she’d said that to her face, she’d probably wake up hanging from one of said windows and have to beg for mercy…

Yanking off her boxing gloves and unwrapping her wrists, Rogue packed them away in her bag, pulling her normal gloves on and wrapping a towel around her neck. She was about to swing her bag over her shoulder when the beeping light of her phone caught her eye. Sighing in exasperation, she pulled out the phone, checking the messages. 

_ Remy, Lebeau.  _

“Bloody swamp rat,” she swore, clicking the button and putting her phone to her ear. “What excuse have you got this time?”

“Hey,  _ chère,”  _ it was definitely him. Just hearing the voice she could almost smell the cigarette smoke and leather. “I know dat I haven’t called since we last saw each other, I just wanted to tell you dat I-I’m gonna come back. Dere ain’ anything left here in Alabama for me, and the past is just gonna have to stay dat way-” suddenly she heard the phone clattering to the ground, Remy grunting in pain.

Faintly in the background, there was another voice. “Hello again, Gambit, long time, no see,” and then the phone cut out to static.

“Well,” Rogue swallowed. “That’s just...shit.”

_ Theme Music: Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons _

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Shadowcat: Ellen Page

Professor X: Patrick Stewart

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Nightcrawler: Kodi Smit-Mcphee

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Storm: Halle Berry

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Colossus: Enver Gjokaj

*Phantom: Colin Morgan (young) 

*Bolt: Dylan Sprouse

*Shatter: Hailee Steinfeld

Guest Starring:

Mackenzie Foy*

Teresa Palmer  _ as  _ Malice

Kirsten Prout  _ as  _ Vertigo

Jason Isaacs  _ as  _ Mr. Sinister

And

Special Guest Star 

Danielle Campbell  _ as  _ Aqua*

_ Underground Location _

“Look who came crawling back,” Remy opened his eyes slowly to see a woman with green hair standing over him. “After you betrayed us last time.”

“Malice,” chided Vertigo. “I think that he’s paying the price enough. Besides,” she laughs. “It’s not like he’s in any state to understand half of what you’re saying.”

“Can understand ’nough to know dat two of you are bitches in the lowest form,” Remy moaned, attempting to lift up his head. 

“Aw…” Malice petted at his head, and he yanked away. “How adorable. What did Essex say to do when he started acting like himself again?”

“Inject this stuff into the base of his skull,” Vertigo waved around a needle filled with milky white liquid. “And enjoy. May I suggest making some popcorn?”

“If you want to,” Malice shrugged, taking the needle from her. “I’m gonna do the honors, if you don’t mind.”

“Go ahead,” laughed Vertigo, and as the other woman injected the liquid into him, all he could see was red as fire took him over from the inside out.

**Commercial Break**

_ Regina and Rin’s Dorm _

“That’s the last of it!” Rin smiled. “I am, officially, moved back in!” 

“Awesome, now we can do something else,” Regina smiled, leaning on her bed.

“C’mon, admit that it’s amazin’,” Rin smiled. “Us being back here together.”

“Wait-” Regina stood up again. “Say that again.”

“Us being back here together?” Rin repeated, confused.

“No-the first bit,” Regina corrected. 

“Admit that it’s amazin’?” Rin tried again.

“No, no, no. Not ‘amazin’ ’. That’s not how it’s pronounced. It’s pronounced, ‘amazing.’ It has a ‘g’ at the end,” explained Regina. “You’re getting an accent like Rogue’s from spending too much time in the south.”

“What’s wrong with having an accent?” Rin smiled. “You have an accent, too.”

“I do?” Regina looked taken aback. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you switch to Spanish a lot, and you just...have an accent. I don’t know how to explain it,” Rin shrugged. 

“Whatever,” Regina rolled her eyes. 

_ Bobby’s Dorm _

Bobby flipped through the pages of his book, taking notes. A timid knock on his door caused him to look up, setting the book and pencil down. “Who is it?”

“Rogue,” came the muffled reply from beyond the door. “Can ah come in?”

“Sure,” he replied, standing up from his seat. “What’s up?”

“Ah got a message, from Remy,” she handed Bobby the phone, playing it so he could hear. “Ah’m gonna go after him,” she told him as the voicemail ended.

“Okay…” Bobby walked past her, closing the bedroom door. “What do you need?”

_ The Living Room _

“You guys should see this,” Jubilee said, turning up the volume on the news, the others looking up at the TV screen to see a protest outside of Washington D.C.

“The anti-mutant feeling has risen more and more after the Mutant Registration act was reopened for discussion,” the blonde reporter announced.

“I thought that they shut that down for good,” frowned Kitty.

“Nah,” Matt shook his head. “They hate us too much for that. Just put it on pause.”

“The crowds have gathered by the hundreds, urging congress to vote and pass the act. Similarly, a mutant pride protest has gathered a few blocks from here,” the camera cut to a large group of people, some mutants, others not, holding signs that all read something along the lines of ‘mutant pride’.

“See! People are paying attention to what we have to say,” Rin pointed out, smiling. 

“In cases like these,” Piotr said solemnly. “It is not the voice of reason that gets heard, but the loudest.”

_ Underground Location _

“How are the blood tests going?” asked a scrawny scientist, holding several vials of multicolored liquids in his hands.

“As expected,” answered Essex. “Lebeau’s samples match his previous ones. I will be performing several MRI scans on his brain later, I want the machine all ready to go, understood?”

“Yes, sir,” nodded the scientist before rushing away. 

“I have a question,” Malice leaned on the side of one of the tables. “Why are you experimenting on him now? You’ve know his location for several weeks.”

“Lebeau is...intriguing to me. I wanted to watch him. Observe his behavior when left to his own accord. He hasn’t failed my expectations,” Essex slid something under a microscope, twisting the knob on the side to zoom in. “But he has several friends. That is why I allowed him to make that half of a phone call. If these...X-Men are as resourceful as I believe, they will come for him. When they do, I will be able to complete my studies.”

“You hope that it is Grey and Summers who come to rescue him?” Malice asked. “So you can continue on, create the perfect mutant?”

“In a perfect world, it would be them,” he dripped a chemical on the sample underneath the microscope. “I do not think that it will be. But someone will, and they will go after them.”

“Should I alert the guards? Tell them to expect someone to be breaking in?” she asked.

“Yes,” he answered,  smiling to himself.

_ Westchester, New York _

“Where to, miss?” asked the cabbie, looking back through his mirror at the southern mutant.

“Forty-first and second, please,” Rogue requested, buckling up and checking her wallet. 

“Sure thing,” he nodded, pulling out of the parking space and driving into traffic.

**Commercial Break**

_ The Mansion _

“Rin?” Kitty turned to her, pausing before going on.

“Yeah, Kit?” Rin raised an eyebrow, her usual smile plastered on her face. “What’s up?”

“I want to look up and do some research on Nathaniel Essex, I was wondering if you could help me since he worked with your dad and all,” asked Kitty.

“Sure! I can give you the company names and stuff, and I could even help you access my dad’s email, if that would help,” Rin said brightly.

“Rin?” Regina gasped in mock surprise. “Are you-breaking the rules?”

“You might’ve been right about that one thing,” Rin grinned. “Sometimes to do good you have to break the rules a little bit.”

“Wait,” Regina pulled out a phone. “Can you say that again? I want to make that my ringtone.”

“Good grief,” Rin shook her head. “Let’s go, Kitty.”

_ Back Alleys of New York _

Rogue stopped at the top of the sewer gate, pulling out her phone again to double check the address that Bobby had given her. Biting her lip, she slowly lifted it up, climbing down the ladder. “Hello?” she called out. “Is anyone still here? My name’s Rogue, ah-”

Rogue suddenly was flipped onto her back faster than she could even process, a knife pressed against her neck. Training instincts kicked in, and Rogue, assisted by her enhanced strength, threw her attacker against the wall, pressing her arm across their neck, the other hand keeping their arms pinned down.

The woman opened her mouth, and something almost like a monster seemed to be crawling out of the depths of it. “Don’t attack-ah’m lookin’ for help. Rin and Regina, you know them-they’re my friends,” Rogue assured the woman. “My name is Rogue, and ah need your help. Ah’m tryin’ to stop the people who attacked y’all.”

The woman closed her mouth, looking over Rogue. “We were slaughtered like animals. How do I know that you aren’t here to finish the job?”

“If ah was here to kill you, would ah announce myself before attackin’ you?” Rogue pointed out. “Ah take it that you’re Callisto?”

“Yes,” Rogue let her go, and Callisto stood up, brushing herself off. “Why do you care about the person who attacked us?” 

“Aside from bein’ a nice person, he took somethin’ from me, too. Ah know his name, Nathaniel Essex. But ah need to know where ah can find him,” Rogue explained. 

“From what I’ve heard, you guys haven’t had any trouble finding his bases and freeing your friends,” Callisto folded her arms, leaning on the wall and looking over Rogue. 

“Ah just need to know everything that you know about him. From that night...and otherwise. Like why would he come after y’all in the first place?” She asked.

Callisto stared for a while, debating, before sighing and standing upright again. “There’s a rumor...that some of the ones who were killed first all had something in common. They never confirmed it when we knew them, but some of them were escapees. They were experimented on, then deserted down here. The Morlocks who were killed first in the slaughter were the ones thought to be a part of the experiment. Then they all just went wild, killing the rest of us.”

“Ah’m sorry,” Rogue said apologetically. “Ah really am. But you have no idea how much any other information you’ve got could help me.”

“We tried to track him. Stopped after one of the trackers was killed, but there was a pattern. He always liked to have his bases along the edges of towns, abandoned areas. I don’t know if that’ll help-” Callisto shrugged. “But it’s all I’ve got.” 

Rogue sighed, nodding. “That’ll have to work. Thank you, Callisto.”

“Anything to put that bastard six feet under where he belongs,” she muttered. 

“If you guys ever need help with anything-” Rogue started.

“Last time we let strangers in we were slaughtered. I think that we’ll stick with what we’ve got, thanks,” Callisto snapped.

Rogue managed a small smile before going back to the ladder, climbing up to the surface again. “Good luck,” she wished.

She stood up, brushing herself off and looking upwards towards the skyscrapers. The city was so freaking huge...he wasn’t in the same base that he was before, he wouldn’t be that stupid, but Remy’s phone was tracked to Alabama… 

“I’d try at least being in the state where pretty boy went missing before staring in the sky for answers,” a sarcastic voice suggested from the shadows.

“Great. Just great. Ah’m here lookin’ for someone and while ah was staring in the sky ah was wonderin’ if it could get any more impossible, and you show up,” Rogue chuckled dryly. “Caterina. Shadow. Whatever you’re goin’ by these days.” 

“I don’t really give a shit what you call me. But I’ve decided to be a genuinely nice person and help you. I know where Sinister’s lab is, where they’re keeping the cajun flavored asshole,” she said. 

“And lemme guess, you only want a small favor in return?” Rogue mocked.

“No. It’s a pretty big favor, actually,” corrected Caterina. “I’ve decided that I don’t like a death warrant hanging over my head.”

“Who has a death warrant hanging over your head?” asked Rogue.

“You. The X-Men. Charles freaking Xavier. You guys hate me, not that I can blame you, and I’m pretty confident in my abilities to say that I could take any one of you, but I’m a little hesitant about all of you. Especially where you guys stand politically, the name that you’re making for yourselves. I don’t want to stand against that, even if I disagree. I don’t want to get pulled into the shit from either side,” she explained. 

“Ah thought that you were all for Magneto’s way of thinkin’,” Rogue recalled.

“I’m all for living. And for that I need power behind me. My deal is I will take you to cajun spice, and I will even-” she scoffed to herself. “Even help you. Which is a big deal. But I want not only your agreement that you and your X-Men won’t kill me, but I want your protection.”

“Me in particular?” Rogue clarified. 

“Hell, no! Did you not hear what I just said about me being above any one of you? No, I want all of the X-Men’s protection, should I ever need it,” she said.

“And you know one hundred percent where Remy is?” double checked Rogue.

“Yes. Now do we have a deal or not?” when Rogue didn’t immediately respond, Caterina sighed, holding up a hand.  “Five. Four. Three. Two-”

“Fine!” Rogue said exasperatedly. “Ah’ll promise you the X-Men’s protection, should you need it, and you’ll take me to Remy, help me get him out.”

“Pleasure doing buisness with you,” Caterina smiled, walking out of the ally. “Follow me, we don’t have all day.”

**Commercial Break**

_ The Mansion _

“Did he go by Nathaniel Essex when your father worked with him?” asked Kitty.

“I think so,” Rin thought back. “I only ever heard my father call him Nathaniel.”

“Well then I’ll keep an eye out for any suspicious activity under a Nathaniel that isn’t the same last name,” decided Kitty.

“Alrighty,” Rin peered over Kitty’s shoulder, looking at the findings. “Woah!” she turned away, covering her eyes. “What the heck?”

“Sorry,” Kitty grimaced, exiting out of the multiple ads. “Looking through the back doors and finding stuff...it usually ends up with ads. I just try to click the exit before it fully loads. Nevermind that, look-this is a picture of your dad’s company. Any of these Nathaniel?”

“Can you zoom in a little bit more on the faces?” asked Rin.

“Sure thing…” Kitty scrolled in, moving across each person in the picture. “Any of them?”

“Him!” Rin exclaimed, tapping the face of a man who was in the back, half covered by someone else. “That’s Nathaniel.”

“Perfect. Now we just have to do a backwards image search, see where else he pops up,” she explained as she did more clicking around. 

“Do you do this a lot? Tracking people and stuff?” Rin asked curiously.

“Nowadays, yeah. It helps a lot on missions. Before it was just something that I learned just in case,” Kitty shrugged. 

“Fun,” Rin nodded, looking at the images and videos popping up. 

“Yeah,” Kitty agreed, distracted. “Fun.”

_ Orange Beach, Alabama _

“So we’re back where we started,” Rogue sighed, looking around the city. “I’m not even going to ask about the helicopter.”

“Black mail’s fun,” Caterina shrugged. “Now that man’s wife won’t know about his year long affair with the babysitter.”

“Gross,” Rogue made a face.

“Secrets usually are,” Caterina smiled, pulling out a phone and erasing his contact information. “Hey, I keep my promises. I won’t ever contact him again.”

“Is this how you spend your free time?” asked Rogue. “Spying on people so you can blackmail them.”

“Sometimes. Sometimes I get the information by chance. With that one I just had the unfortunate luck to spy it from the window on their door. They kissed right in front of it while the mom was getting dressed. But the rest...it’s not like I get paid working for Magneto,” Caterina shrugged. 

“You know…” Rogue looked down for a second, pausing. “You could always talk to the Professor. Ah’m sure that if both of you compromised a little bit, you could stay at the Mansion, be an-”

“If you say X-Men I will rip out your kidney and feed it to you,” slowly, Caterina turned to face the Southern mutant. “Just because we are working together on a mutually beneficial deal does not make us ‘friends.’ I am doing this because I want the assurance of the X-Men’s protection and, quite frankly, Cajun is some pretty decent eye candy.”

Rogue snorted. “Ah just felt like ah had to offer it. No need to get your panties in a bunch.”

Caterina stared, then turned away. “The base is this way. Underground, of course. Hurry up, or there won’t be any eye candy left to save.”

_ Underground Location _

Remy opened his eyes to see glass in front of him. Rolling over from his side to his back, he grabbed the side of the wall to support himself, pulling himself to a stand. There were several other mutants in the room, the majority of them unconscious or extremely out of it. 

“ _ Homme, _ ” Remy tapped the glass wall on the side, where a stocky blond guy sat on the ground, his head between his knees. He appeared to have strange shell like armor over his joints and on his back, with sharp glass like projectiles sticking out of his neck. “Can you hear me?”

The guy looked up at Remy, his eyes hollow. He nodded slowly, sliding over to the glass. “Are you new?”

“You could say dat,” he chuckled darkly. “What’s your name?”

“Jase. You?” asked Jase.

“Call me Gambit,” he replied. “What did they do to you? You look like you had the light sucked right outta you.”

Jase paused, looking down before answering. “They call it Emotional Psychology. They monitor heart rate and blood pressure while you observe them doing horrible things to people you care about. In the name of Science and all.”

“Sorry. Dat sounds horrible,” Remy said. 

“It is. Only has gotten worse since on of their experiments worked. Now they can’t just monitor our emotions, they can control them,” explained Jase. “Make you feel happy while your best friend is being tortured in front of you. Record and see if your pulse has changed, which hormones are being released. It’s sick.”

“Then it’s best to not get too attached to each other, ay? Don’t wan’ you bein’ tortured because of me,” said Remy.

“No we would not,” agreed Jase. “It was nice knowing you, Gambit.”

**Commercial Break**

_ The Mansion _

“What did you find?” Jubilee asked as Rin and Kitty walked into the room, holding a stack of papers.

“His name really is Nathaniel Essex, for starters,” Kitty set the papers on the table. “He has bank accounts under tons of other names though. He has invested in almost every major company to date. Also,” she pulled out an old picture from the stack of papers. “This picture is from the early nineteen hundreds. He looks the exact same.”

“What, is he like a vampire or something?” Jubilee scrunched up her nose. 

“Please,” Regina scoffed. “Keep your crappy works of fiction away from the real world please.”

“It was actually really well written,” Jubilee said softly.

“I think that it’s more likely that he’s just immortal,” Bobby decided.

“So we’re dealing with an evil immortal scientist. Great,” Matt laughed.

“If he’s immortal, how do we kill him?” asked Dan. 

“Everything can be killed,” Kitty reasoned. “I mean, it’s like one of the laws of nature, right? If it’s alive, it can be...unalived.”

“Well do any of you remember Deadpool?” Matt asked, looking around. 

“Don’t remind me,” Regina grumbled.

“He was alive, but he was pretty unkillable. Stabbed through the heart, but he was just fine,” Matt shrugged. “In these days, there are things that are unkillable.”

“Not to mention Logan,” Rin pointed out. “He’s unkillable.”

“Damn right I am,” Logan agreed, walking into the room. “You’re not thinking of killing me, are you?”

“Not you,” Kitty handed over some of the paper. “Nathaniel Essex. Sinister. The evil scientist who has been experimenting on mutants. The one who kidnapped Jean and Scott and countless others. The one who we think orchestrated the attack on the Morlocks.”

“Fun. When’s this picture from?” Logan squinted closer at the picture.

“Early nineteen hundreds,” Kitty supplied.

“Jesus Christ,” Logan sighed, setting the picture down. “We’re dealing with an immortal. Have you shown all this to the Professor?” 

“Not yet, we just found it,” said Rin.

“Well, I’d go show it to him. He’s gonna want to see it,” Logan flipped through some of the other papers. “Great. Just great. It couldn’t be a normal evil scientist. Had to be an immortal evil scientist.”

“At least it’s always interesting!” Rin offered hopefully. 

“Unfortunately,” Logan pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “You guys go back to-I dunno, whatever the hell you were doing before.”

_ The Outskirts of Orange Beach, Alabama _

“Ah’d of thought that if he was going to go through all of the trouble of moving bases, he’d at least move to another state,” Rogue said to herself, kicking away rubble.

“He didn’t want to go too far away from his funding,” supplied Caterina. “If he stopped showing up at his job for Princess’s father, then it would raise suspicion, cut off the money supply. For now, at least, he won’t be going too far.”

“But he had a base in New York. He took Jean and Scott there,” pointed out Rogue.

“Don’t ask me to figure out how his mind works. But he has a lot of mutants in debt to him for one reason or another. Maybe there was a teleporter who helped him out. Maybe he was on vacation. Maybe he just felt like it,” Caterina shrugged. “I don’t know.” 

“Perfect,” Rogue muttered. “We’re going to want all the information that we can get on him.”

“So you can enact whatever the Hell your secret plan is?” Caterina raised an eyebrow at Rogue.

“Ah-my what?” Rogue did a double take, looking towards the other girl. “It’s...not a secret. Just a plan.”

“And to do this plan you’re going to need this Sinister’s entire backstory. Aha,” she snorted.

“It’s more like...finding out his entire backstory,” Rogue shrugged. 

“This is it,” Caterina leaned against the door of an abandoned office building. 

“The office building?” Rogue asked, puzzled. “Ah thought that he was more fond of underground locations.”

“Below the office building, smart one,” Caterina swung the door open. “You’ll need to use that stolen strength of yours to break in.”

“Where?” asked Rogue, who was lead by Caterina to a small closet. “Was all of this already here, or did he build it himself?”

“It was already here, mostly. He just extended it, readded the electricity,” Caterina explained.

“Don’t tell me that he gets all of his funding from working for Rin’s dad,” Rogue laughed.

“No. He has others who fund him, donate to his cause anonymously,” she answered.

“How do you know all of this stuff?” Rogue looked around the inside of the closet, lifting up a rug to reveal a trapdoor.

“I’ve eavesdropped a lot. Going in blind would be a death sentence,” Caterina sniggered, looking Rogue up and down. “Very convenient that I showed up, otherwise you’d be looking forever. The country’s huge, and vague hints like ‘abandoned buildings’ weren’t going to get you anywhere.” 

“Stop bragging about yourself,” Rogue gritted her teeth, ripping open the door. “Ah don’ know how much further we’re gonna get before we run into some guards.”

“Well if your previous encounters are anything to go by, there’s a decent chance that we won’t run into any,” she shrugged cheerfully, following Rogue down into the underground.

“These hallways are a lot more high tech than the others,” Rogue noted, looking at the bright lights on the ceiling and the clean tiles. “And here’s that symbol again. The one for Sinister.”

“Remember those guards who you were talking about?” Rogue turned to see Caterina gripping the neck of one of the guards, his skin rotting inwards and black blood pouring from his neck. “I found them.”

**Commercial Break**

“Shit,” Rogue swore, swinging a roundhouse kick at another guard, throwing him against the wall, leaving a dent in the cement. “Ah count fifteen.”

“Fun,” a slightly deranged smile flitted across her face as she swung her foot around, her hands wrapped around the wrist of another, which decayed and bled until the guard collapsed onto the ground. Rogue kneed one in the chest, pushing down on his shoulders to kick back at the upcoming attacker from behind. “And then there were ten.” 

Rogue wrapped her arms around the neck of them, flipping them onto the ground and whipping around to deliver a right hook to another. After a few moments, all of them were unconscious on the ground. “We should get going. Ah don’ know when the next batch of guards is comin’.”

“Take a ID,” Caterina ordered, picking up her own. “They’ll get us into the more restricted areas of the base without setting off many alarms. Although they already know that we’re here. They just won’t know where in here we are,” her black eyes glimmered.

“There are so many people here,” Rogue looked across at all of the cells where dozens of mutants were locked up,many unconscious and drugged. “You got pockets?”

“Yeah, why? You have pockets. I’m not your walking purse,” she spat.

“You’ll see soon enough. Ah’m going to fold up some papers, and you're gonna take them back to the Institute when you go,” Rogue ordered.

“What the hell makes you think that I’m going to go back to the Institute sooner than I need to? Just because I asked for the X-Men’s protection doesn’t mean that I’m going to go and hang out with all of you assholes,” Caterina stopped dead on her tracks, her voice rising slightly. 

“Ah’m not askin’ you to go and live there. But you promised to help me, and trust me when ah say that if you don’t ah won’ be the only one sufferin’,” Rogue explained. 

Caterina glared for a moment, then nodded. “Fine. Give me the bloody papers.”

Rogue handed over a couple of folded up papers from the files, which Caterina stuffed in her pockets, in her shoes, and one in her bra. “You never want to have all of them in one place. Trust me, I’ve learned a lot in my few weeks of freedom.”

“C’mon, ah think that he’s this way,” Rogue led down the hallways, looking sympathetically at all of the other mutants who pressed themselves against the glass as they passed. “How does he have this many mutants captive and nobody’s noticed?”

“I don’t know, I don’t care,” Caterina shrugged. “All of these mutants, together, in one space with a common enemy? It’s their own fault that they haven’t gotten out.”

“And here ah thought that you were growin’ a heart,” Rogue muttered under her breath.

“Lover boy’s at the end of the hall,” Caterina gestured to Remy, who was leaned with his back to the glass, his head down.

Rogue sighed with relief, running towards his cell as the lights started flashing. “Intruder alert, all guards report to hallway A,” a robotic voice called from above.

“Shit,” Rogue swore under her breath. “We don’ have much time. Can you stand guard while ah break the glass?”

“Do I really have a choice?” She retorted, facing away from Rogue and staring down the hallway. 

Remy glumly turned around as he saw the lights flashing and heard muffled speaking through the glass. They’d stuck a few more needles in him since he’d last spoken to Jase, leaving him pretty out of it. His eyes widened when he saw Rogue standing on the other side of the glass, motioning for him to back away. Scrambling back from the glass, Rogue kicked it inwards, shattering the glass and pushing away some of the broken shards. “Remy! You’re alright!” she sighed in relief, extending her gloved hands to help him up to his feet. “We don’t have much time, we have to get you outta here.”

“ _ Chère,  _ I ain’t ever been more happy to see you in my entire life,” he exhaled, leaning into her. Rogue held him up, careful not to touch any of his exposed skin.

“How are you?” she supported him as he limped down the hallway, casting sideways glances at the other mutants. “And why the hell does Essex want you?”

_ Take Me to Church by Hozier Plays Over Next Several Scenes _

“Long story,” he muttered. “We just need to get the hell out of here.”

“That’s gonna be so much harder with you two love birds playing catch up,” Caterina grumbled. “There’s tons of guards up ahead. Can Cajun Spice walk on his own, or is he gonna die not being pressed up against you with only four measly layers of clothing between you?”

“I can stand,” he glared at Caterina, who winked in reply. 

“Guards up ahead,” Caterina grinned, darting ahead and pulled a knife out of seemingly nowhere and slitting the throat of one. “Sorry if I’m not inclined to follow the don’t kill policy, but I want to live.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Remy nodded, and Rogue backhanded another against the wall. 

“Cat can you-” Rogue started.

“Call me that again and I’ll force feed you your kidney,” she growled.

“Sorry. Shadow. Whatever. Did you see Dr. Essex?” Rogue asked.

_ Regina and Rin’s Dorm _

“I’ve called my dad, explained all of the situation to him. Essex is under inspection, all of his bank accounts are frozen and they’re tracking him as much as possible,” Rin described.

“Awesomesauce,” Regina smiled brightly. “Did the Professor go over the information that you and Kitty found?”

“Yeah. He and Jean and all of them are going over it again as we speak,” Rin answered. 

“Haven’t been back for more than what, four days? Already solving a mystery and taking down a bad guy,” her smile faded a little bit. “Kind of starting to see your parents point of view on how going to school here can get you killed.”

“Yeah,” Rin pressed her lips together, looking down. “I don’t care. I mean...when I came back to Alabama, got better after the whole Morlock thing...a lot changed,” she decided. “After I was all better, I didn’t want to be put in that position again. The damsel in distress, always needing to be saved. That’s why I was so much better at fighting down in the secret base. I’ve taken self defense classes, trained more and more on my own,” Rin stopped talking for a moment, almost enough for Regina to wonder if she’d said everything that she was going to say. Then she spoke again, “I saw...helping out those other mutants, and going down and seeing what this...Sinister, is doing to those other mutants. I saw a lot more darkness in this world than I ever saw through my rose tinted glasses. That’s why I decided to come back now. I’m ready to fight the real fight that I need to.”

_ Underground Base _

“There’s no way dat we all get outta dis one,” Remy said.

“I plan on living. Good thing that we’re not all getting out of here,” Caterina looked towards Rogue. 

“What do you mean, not all gettin’ outta here?” Remy turned to Rogue. “If anyone’s gettin’ left behind, it’s gonna be demon eyes over here.”

“Ah’ve got a plan,” Rogue hasted. “This is somethin’ big, and even with all that Kitty’s found, we still don’ have enough information to take down Essex.”

“ _ Chère,  _ he ain’t someone you can take down, n’matter how much information you got on him,” Remy warned.

“And you know that because of your past with him?” Remy clenched his jaw, looking down, confirming Rogue’s thoughts. “Ah ain’t an idiot, Remy Lebeau. Ah can connect two dots just as easily as you can.”

“I don’ know what he’s doin’ here,” he muttered.

“That ain’t what ah said. Shadow here has papers, and she’s gonna take you back to the Mansion. Ah’m gonna stay back and absorb Sinister, get enough information to figure out his weakness. Y’all are gonna come back here, and we’re gonna take him down with our information,” Rogue explained angrily. “So you can stay here and keep whining about not knowin’ him, or you can make sure that Shadow gets the information back.”

“Dis ain’t a good idea,” growled Remy.

“Ah’ve got it all planned out! Ah ain’ jumpin’ into somethin’ that isn’ all planned out!” Rogue’s accent thickened with her anger, and she took a step closer to him.

_ Regina and Rin’s Dorm _

“ _ Dios mio,  _ that was deep,” Regina breathed, shaking her head to herself. “How long have you had that speech stuffed up your sleeve?”

“I’ve been thinking about it for a few days,” Rin admitted. 

“I’m not going to lie, before you left, you never did see the...shitty part of the world,” Regina shrugged. “I’m glad that you trained up. I don’t want to have to think that I killed you ever again.”

“Regina! That wasn’t your fault. I made the decision to help those Morlocks just as much as you did. Stop dragging yourself through the mud because of my decision,” she chastised. 

“I don’t know what I’d do if you actually died. Especially if it was my fault,” Regina croaked. “You were really annoying when I first met you. But when you became my roommate, and then when…” Regina stopped. 

“I know,” Rin set her hand on top of Regina’s. “Trust me, I think that you’re underestimating my perceptiveness.”

_ Underground Base _

“You’re underestimating him!” Remy bellowed. “He does messed up things here, and the longer dat you stay gettin’ information, the more likely dat you ain’t gonna be the same when we try to take him down!”

“Like how you’re different!” Rogue cursed. “When ah came back you were all kinds of different! What the hell happened that was so bad? What about him was so bad that you couldn’t tell anyone?”

“Please, just come back with us,” Remy begged, grabbing her hands. “We don’ need the information dat bad, we can just stay away from him-”

“And let more mutants get hurt? We’re X-Men! It’s our job to protect them!” Rogue responded, her voice lower to match his. “Ah know that you are afraid of him. But ah’m not. We need someone to go undercover, and ah can get the information the easiest. Besides, you need someone to hold off the guards. Otherwise none of us are gettin’ out.”

“ _ Chère, _ ” Remy quivered. “Don’ be stupid.”

Rogue traced her gloves along the side of Remy’s cheek. “You have to trust me.”

“I do,” he promised. Rogue stared at him for a brief moment, then closed the distance between them, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. For a few precious moments he kissed her back, pulling her close. Her skin felt electricity, burning. This was what touch was like, the magic of it and the breathlessness that it came with. The moment ended as she felt him flowing into her, his life force and memories. Remy sunk into her arms, and Rogue broke away from the kiss, holding him up.

“Take him,” Rogue muttered, her eyes now as red and black as Remy’s. “Back to the Mansion. Give the information to them. Okay? Tell them dat ah gave you my word dat you’d be protected.”

“You trust me that I won’t throw him in a dumpster?” Caterina snorted.

“Ah trust dat you wan’ the protection of the X-Men. And if you throw him away, you won’t get it. Dey already know dat you're comin’, anyway,” Rogue crossed her arms. 

“Fine. But after I drop off loverboy, don’t expect to see me again anytime soon. Unless I’m dying. In which case I will be sure to drag you into my shit,” Caterina dragged Remy away from the hallway. “I’m going to need you to get him up the ladder. But I’m guessing that you only have about fifteen seconds before the guards are here.”

Rogue scooped him up, flying as quick as she could, tossing him lightly onto the ground of the closet in which the trapdoor was placed. “Hurry up,” she pressed, darting down, her eyes glowing red and her hands magenta as she turned to face the oncoming horde of guards. “Gimme your worst, boys,” the corner of her mouth turned up in a half smile as they charged towards her.

_ Regina and Rin’s Dorm _

“I don’t underestimate you,” Regina shook her head to herself.

“Well I underestimate you. I underestimate your recklessness, your stubbornness. I underestimated the amount of guilt that I put you through when I decided to follow the rules and not contact you,” her voice was thick. 

Regina traced her hand along Rin’s. “I know.”

“I’m glad that you didn’t do anything stupid,” breathed Rin.

“I prefer the term daring,” Regina looked up towards Rin, holding eye contact for a split second-

And then they were kissing. She wasn’t sure which one of them had started it, but there they were, pressed up against each other, her hands knotted in Rin’s hair. All the memories of the little moments that they’d spent together before the accident came rushing towards her. Regina surprised even herself on her daringness with this move. Slight conversations on the topic of romance, nothing enough to show that this was coming. But it was here, and they had so much to lose, and Regina would be damned if she spent another second of her short life waiting for something to happen on its own.

_ In Bobby’s Dorm _

_ Earlier that Day _

“What do you need?” Bobby asked.

“Ah have a plan. You’re the only person who ah think can understand, or at least not tell anyone about it,” Rogue shifted her weight from foot to foot, taking in a deep breath. “Ah am gonna get Remy back. There’s somethin’ he ain’t tellin’ me about his history with that man, and it’s not safe for him there. But ah was thinkin’…” Rogue sat down on the edge of her bed, staring Bobby straight in the eyes. 

“Yeah?”

“We don’ have enough information on this Sinister guy. No matter what, he’s not gonna keep all of the info on him online, especially if it contains his weakness. Ah’m gonna go undercover after ah rescue Remy, and ah’m gonna find out a weakness,” Rogue swallowed. “Ah jus’ need you to not tell anyone until later tonight. They’ll try and stop me. They don’t realize that we’re running out of options here.”

“You won’t be able to get out of there,” Bobby warned. “No way that he doesn’t find you.”

“Ah’m a lot more powerful now, remember? Ah can take care of myself. Ah’ll send you updates to let you know how things are going, and send you information from inside the base,” Rogue stood up, stepping closer to Bobby. “Please do this. If we don’t, there’s no telling how many people could die.”

“Keep your phone on you at all times,” Bobby decided. “When do you want me to tell the others where you went?”

“Wait until tonight. Ah don’ want them following me and stopping me,” answered Rogue. “Or maybe later. Ah don’t even know where to start looking. Maybe his base in New York?”

“Maybe…” Bobby thought on that. “You should check the tunnels, I’ll give you an address. Talk to the Morlocks, see what they know? The woman in charge is named Callisto, if you tell her that you’re friends with Rin and all of us, she’ll probably help you.”

“But aren’t those the mutants that were killed in the massacre?” questioned Rogue. 

“Not all of them died. From what Regina’s mentioned since she started visiting them, they’re trying to relocate-they’ve sent out scouts to find other places. They should still be there, though,” disclosed Bobby.

“Okay,” Rogue beamed. “Thank you, Bobby.”

“Just-be safe, alright?” Bobby confirmed, to which Rogue nodded. 

“You know me, ah always am,” Rogue promised.

_ Outside the Mansion _

_ Present _

Caterina knocked on the door, her papers in hand with Remy leaning angrily against the nearby wall. “Stop whining, cajun. Skunk hair knows what she’s doing.”

“Clearly not,” he grumbled. “Or she wouldn’t have trusted you.”

“You’re here, you’re alive. I think that I fulfilled my end of the bargain,” Caterina said. “And because of her end of it, you can’t attack me, anyway.”

“Hello?” Jean asked, the door swinging open. “Oh! Ca-Shadow. What an unexpected...and Remy. You’re back.”

“Hello Jeannie,” Caterina wriggled her eyebrows. “Didja miss me?”

**End Credits**

Promo for Next Episode ‘ _ Alea Iacta Est’ _ :

The battle has finally come- the X-Men against their most Sinister villain yet. Bonds will be forged and broken, and relationships will be tested. The season comes to a thrilling conclusion in next week’s finale.


	22. Update Notice: IMPORTANT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Important updating notice on whether or not I should continue- PLEASE READ AND GIVE ME YOUR IMPUT

Hello! Long time no see.

I could make an excuse about how busy I've been with school, which is true, and use that as the reason for why I haven't been posting, but in all honesty, I've lost interest in this story. I moved over the summer, and so I didn't throw myself into this because I was adjusting, and I realized that some of the choices that I made when it came to the characters and their 'casting' was rude and racist as I whitewashed many of them, so for that, I deeply apologize. Up until recently, nobody has said anything about me posting another chapter or continuing the story. But I have gotten a message, and I am asking if anyone would read it, and if anyone has any ideas for where I can go from here. If I did decide to continue, I would have to make a lot of improvement in changing the way that colored characters are treated, and the damsel in distress thing that I seem to have going. 

I may put an end to this story and instead do one shots, which are easier to write and less time consuming. Let me know which you'd prefer, and we can go from there.

Thank you for your patience,

Breathingfiredragons


End file.
